


Six Months

by Ziggy_Scardust



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Jess has to work through some shit, Jimmy is an asshole, Post-Series, Pre-AYITL, Recessions suck, Reconciliation, Road Trip from Hell, Small Towns, but not for everyone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 23,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25762240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ziggy_Scardust/pseuds/Ziggy_Scardust
Summary: “You didn’t give me that password for six months and I lived here.”Jess moves back into the diner at some point when the 2009 recession crushes Truncheon and he’s having a hard time.
Relationships: Luke Danes & Jess Mariano, Luke Danes & Lorelai Gilmore, Luke Danes/Lorelai Gilmore
Comments: 64
Kudos: 79





	1. Endings

**Author's Note:**

> So, this fic has a slow start, because a lot of it is about Jess figuring himself out. It'll get into a little more of Jess & Luke's relationship and Jess growing out of a difficult situation later.

Jess stood in the middle of the floor that had once been Truncheon. Everything had been sold, piece by piece, until the building was empty. Even Matt and Chris insisted they’d been bought and paid for, clinging to lifelines at the jobs they’d managed to find. But try as he might, Jess could not blame them for jumping ship, or selling out. Having somewhere to go had to be better. It had to feel better than this, anyway, having to go through all the stupid, necessary steps in dismantling a business that, in theory, was already destroyed. He hadn’t realized how much  _ work _ , mind-numbing bureaucratic work at that, was involved in declaring bankruptcy and liquidating the business’ assets. He had hated it. But now that it was done, it was almost worse. There was nothing left. 

Jess sighed, and turned to go upstairs. The apartment had nothing in it, now, except a mattress that couldn’t be sold and the rest of his clothes, but the lease wasn’t up for another few days. 

He got the call a couple hours later, lying on what was left of his bed, skimming over The Old Man And The Sea for the hundredth time.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Jess, it’s Sasha,” he heard a slightly breathless voice say on the other end.

“Sasha? How’d you get this number?”

“Jimmy called Liz, and she gave it to him.”

Jess swore under his breath. He had  _ told _ Liz not to give out his number. Why Jimmy even had hers was a mystery.

“So what’s up?” he asked, trying to sound casual. 

“Well, we’re getting married. Me and Jimmy. He wasn’t sure if we should tell you, or if you’d want to come. But I thought you should know. It’s this Saturday. You’re invited.”

“Oh,” said Jess lamely. He wasn’t sure what he had expected. 

“I know you must be too busy right now to come all the way here, but I thought you ought to know, at least.”

Sasha’s tone was earnest, and she had been kind to him when she had had no reason to be, which tapped into whatever part of Jess was still subject to quarter-Jewish parental guilt. And it wasn’t as if he had anywhere to be. Somewhere in his head, Luke’s voice echoed.

“ _ You could witness something GOOD for your mother...if you miss this, you are going to look back and feel like a big steaming pile of crap-“ _

“Uh, I’ll come,” he said impulsively. 

“You will? Really? Liz said you had a busy job, I don’t want -“

“Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but a lot of people these days aren’t as busy as they used to be.” He tried not to sound bitter. 

“Oh,” said Sasha, sounding distinctly uncomfortable.

“It’s OK. You said Saturday?”

“Yeah. Two in the afternoon, near us in Santa Monica.”

“Can I crash with you?”

“Uh, sure.”

“Thanks.” He hung up, then looked slowly around the room. He had just agreed to go to his father’s wedding. His absentee father, who had only grudgingly allowed him to stay for a month five years ago, and had spent the whole time insisting he couldn’t help him. Jess had no idea -  _ no idea -  _ why the fuck he had just agreed to show up. 

He shuffled downstairs, grateful the microwave was built-in and couldn’t be sold as he made himself a cup of tea from the stash Chris had left behind. He looked around at the empty ground floor, at the spot where  _ Untitled _ had hung, at the stand in the front where copies of  _ The Subsect _ had been displayed. Something painful twisted in his gut. He went back upstairs hurriedly. He still had no idea  _ why _ he was going to California, but it had to be better than waiting out his lease on the ghosts of the only thing he’d ever been proud of. 

Saturday. It was summer, he could get there by car in time, if he slept in it; no way could he afford a plane ticket on short notice. He looked around. There was nothing to pack, with everything already shoved into his army bag except for the sheets and the mattress. 

He dragged the mattress outside - his lease would be up before he would get back - threw his bag into the car, then went back in and cleaned the last of the food out of the cupboard and threw it into the passenger seat. He started driving, if only for something to do. 

For a while, that worked. Fighting city traffic gave him something to rage and curse at, something to take his fury and disappointment and shame out on.

Then came the highway. He kept driving out of range of the good radio stations, and every time he did, the static and the silence allowed his mind to wander back to the utter void that was his life now. The business was gone. He had no job, no home, and the only reason he was even driving was because he desperately wanted to have somewhere to be, some obligation to fulfill. He could barely bring himself to care that Jimmy was getting married. He fumbled frantically with the dial as the static started to drown the music again, wanting very much not to be left alone with his thoughts. The scanner landed on 88.3FM and Bowie’s voice came streaming out of the speakers.

“.... _ back from Suffragette City!” _

He slammed the button and turned the radio off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, I typically think of Luke as half-Jewish on his mother's side, but non-religious. Mostly based on him building Lorelai a chuppah and regularly calling Taylor a putz. Jess is a quarter Jewish, and cares absolutely nothing for it until he realizes Luke can expertly guilt-trip him.


	2. Clashes

He crossed over into California early Saturday morning, and drove steadily; the mountain roads required enough focus that he didn’t even mind the radio dropping out. He still was not entirely sure why he had told Sasha the press had shut down. She and Jimmy had no reason to know that. It wasn’t as if he was going to ask them for help, or money. He hadn’t even told Luke, though Luke had known they were struggling. He had offered help, but Jess had turned it down; there was nothing Luke could have done for Truncheon, in any case. He wondered if Luke’s business had been affected by the downturn - surely not, at least not badly, he thought, considering the intense loyalty of most of his clientele. Somehow, this knowledge brought him no comfort. Instead, he felt inadequate, as if the failure of Truncheon was somehow highlighted by Luke maintaining his business. As if he had failed  _ Luke _ in some way, the way Liz had every time she had begged Luke to bail her out.

It made no sense, he knew - he and Chris and Matt had agreed not to blame each other. They had done their damndest, all three of them, and thousands of small businesses were shuttering around the country. Still, it was the only thing - besides  _ The Subsect _ \- that he’d ever really worked at. That he really wanted to succeed. God, even his  _ book _ was technically out of print, now. 

The radio crackled back into comprehensibility, and he settled a bit deeper into his seat, grateful for something to occupy his brain. 

“ _...all over Manhattan, and down Doheny Way…” _

Beach Boys. Seemed appropriate. Jimmy would be proud, he thought sullenly, turning up the volume.

* * *

He arrived a few hours before the wedding. The house was the same, but eerily quiet - no dogs this time. Lily was there, sitting between the wall and the spare mattress propped against it. 

“Hi,” she said, not looking up from her book. He peered around at the cover.

“ _ Moby Dick _ . Good choice. How are you?”

Lily shrugged. 

“Yeah, I’m about the same,” he nodded. “Where are your mom and Jimmy?”

“Over at Dante’s. They’re getting married on the beach there.”

“Aren’t they not supposed to see each other until the wedding?”   
Lily shrugged again, and Jess gave up. He looked at his watch; it was still only about 11am. He went silently upstairs to the bathroom, and showered the road-trip smell off with Sasha’s weird soap made of hemp. He dressed in his one, and only, set of vaguely nice clothes, the ones he hadn’t worn since the open house. They were wrinkled from the trip, but he could not bring himself to care. 

“Lily, would you wake me up when you’re getting ready to go?” Lily nodded owlishly at him from her space behind the mattress, and he stretched out on the couch, suddenly exhausted. 

He walked Lily down the boardwalk to where a group of people was gathering on the beach, an arch set up near the water. This was stupid, he thought, getting married on the beach at 2pm. The light was glaring, the sun was hot, and he didn’t even know what he was doing here.

The wedding itself was somewhat less ridiculous than Liz and TJ’s had been, though that was a low bar. He sat at the back as Lily walked up the aisle and stood next to her mother. He heard Jimmy making all sorts of promises, to be there for Sasha, and for Lily, and for any more kids they might have.  _ Funny, _ he thought to himself,  _ isn’t that what marrying Liz was supposed to mean, too?  _

Then it was Sasha’s turn, and she spoke about a man Jess had never met, who was reliable, and generous, and looked out for Lily. A Jimmy completely different from the one who had insisted he couldn’t be there for Jess, had nothing to offer him, except a place to sleep on the floor. At that moment, Jess very nearly stood up and left, and stayed only because Lily was looking at him very seriously through her thick glasses. Instead, he gazed out at the ocean, wondering how long before he could reasonably beg off. He looked away from Lily; he felt like she was X-raying him, like she could see the bitterness. 

The reception was very informal, just a gathering of people at Dante’s Inferno. Jess found himself a hot dog, then stood awkwardly off to the side, watching. He hovered outside the group of people who all seemed to know Sasha and Jimmy, painfully aware that he did not belong among them. 

“Hey, you came,” a voice said at his elbow. He jumped. It was Sasha, smiling at him. He attempted to smile back. 

“Yeah, I wasn’t busy.” He had no idea how to talk to her; at least she hadn’t tried to hug him. 

“Jimmy’s glad you’re here too, aren’t you?” She looked over at Jimmy approaching, handing her a pickle.

“Hey, Jess,” Jimmy said awkwardly.

“Hi. Congratulations, I guess,” said Jess, mostly to fill the silence. 

“Something wrong?” Jimmy had cocked his head to one side. Jess snorted; as if Jimmy actually  _ wanted _ to know. 

“Well, the economy sucks,” he said flippantly. 

“Yeah,” said Jimmy absently. “Hot dog stand’s doing OK, though.”

“Great,” said Jess shortly. The awkwardness thickened around them. 

“Well, I’m sure Lily’s glad you’re here,” said Sasha valiantly. 

“Oh, yeah,” said Jess, trying and failing to avoid sliding into his reflexively sarcastic tone. “She’s thrilled.”

“I’m, uh, glad to see you too,” said Jimmy. “This is a new chapter for me.”

“New chapter, huh?” 

“Yeah, Sasha and I are really excited. We’re thinking of having a baby.”

“Wow, a whole new family,” said Jess in mock amazement. He knew he was pushing it, now, but Jimmy’s promises to Sasha kept echoing around his head, and he couldn’t help himself. Sasha looked at him, and he swallowed, figuring it was smarter to leave before he ran his mouth.

“I’m going to get a drink,” he muttered, and pushed away through the crowd towards the soda fountain. He inwardly thanked his lucky stars he had avoided the alcohol during the toasts; he had a feeling he would want to be good to drive.

“Hey, what was that about?” Jimmy had apparently followed him, and Jess whipped around with his glass half filled. Sasha was gone, and Jimmy was glaring at him.

“Nothing,” lied Jess, turning away. “I’m going.”

“Wait,” Jimmy grabbed his elbow. “Why the hell are you acting like this? I thought you came because you were happy for me, for getting my life together.”

Jess looked at the hand on his elbow and yanked it out of reach.

“I came because Sasha invited me. I shouldn’t‘ve. You promising her all this shit - this is your new start, is it? You screwed up the first time, so you had to find a new wife and kid to start over on?”

“That’s not what I -“

“Don’t fuck with me, that’s  _ exactly _ what you meant. You got away from me, you put up with Lily, and now you want a fresh kid, as if a new one will erase what you did to the first one.”

“I told you, I wasn’t ready to be a father.”

“And you are now? Bullshit.”

“No, really -“

“I’m done,” said Jess harshly. “I don’t know why I came. I hope, for Lily and Sasha’s sake, that you really do have it together, but I don’t need to be here to see it. You want to leave your mistakes behind? Great. I’m out. Lose my number.”

“Jess, I -“

“Oh, you’re not going to apologize  _ now _ , are you?” Jess could feel the heat rising behind his eyes. He hadn’t been in a fight in years, and he had forgotten what it meant to really  _ want _ to hurt someone.  _ Don’t be stupid, just leave and get out of here, _ he tried to tell himself. 

“Lose. My. Number,” he spat at Jimmy. He shoved his hands in his pockets and strode off down the boardwalk. He threw his belongings back in the car on top of a few stray copies of  _ The Subsect _ , slammed the door shut, and started driving east. He was so angry his hands were shaking on the steering wheel. He couldn’t believe he had been stupid enough to show up, to think maybe he could get past Jimmy’s failures. At least he had managed not to haul off and slug him in the face.

The light slowly faded as he drove further inland, and the anger slowly became replaced by fear. By the time he could get back to Philly, the lease would be up. No way could he put a deposit down on another apartment. Matt and Chris had moved in with relatives. He had a couple hundred bucks in a checking account, enough to get him back East, but not much more than that.  _ Fuck _ , this was a stupid idea. At least if he’d stayed in Philly he wouldn’t have burned so much gas money. He kept driving, hardly noticing the time, until the wave of adrenaline from the anger had mostly petered out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I ever wanted to see Windward Circle, but I kinda wish there had been some closure between Jess and Jimmy at some point. And I'm really not a fan of Jimmy, as I'm sure you can tell.


	3. Malta, Ohio

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess makes an accidental detour through Morgan County, Ohio.

He kept going for another day, cutting a different path than he had on the way over, just to give himself something to think about. But as much as he tried to avoid it, his situation was staring him down. There were two options: stay with Luke, or with Liz. After Jimmy, he didn’t think he could stand Liz, not after she’d given them his number. That left Luke, and even though they had been on good terms, asking Luke for a place to stay seemed like too much. He had failed in his work, derailed his career, and now - after all Luke’s attempts to keep him from going nowhere - he was, literally, going nowhere. Going to Luke’s would require an explanation, an admission that Truncheon had folded, and going back on his promise to himself that he wouldn’t cost Luke another dime. He had sworn he wouldn’t turn out like Liz, failing at every turn and leaning on Luke every time, and now here he was. His throat tightened. He swallowed. He was exhausted, and it seemed to sap his energy to think about his situation. 

There had been no rest stops for miles, and the only signs he had seen since Columbus were for Pittsburgh, another two hundred miles away. He pulled off the highway, past a sign reading “Welcome to McConnelsville”, and then another reading “Welcome to Malta”. Beyond the sign for Malta, there seemed to be no lights at all, just fields and fences. If he kept going, he doubted he’d be able to find the highway again. He turned onto the one road that seemed to have a sign, saying “Ross Rd”, and decided to pull off onto the soft shoulder to sleep.

He pulled off the road, but instead of coming to a gentle stop, the car lurched sideways suddenly. His right bumper smacked into a fencepost, nearly pushing it over, and his car heeled at a crazy angle. Suddenly awake, Jess leapt out of the car and ran around to the front.

“What the-“ he stumbled, nearly falling into a ditch by the road that, in the dark and thick grass, had looked for all the world like an innocent patch of ground. His right front wheel was hanging in midair, his car propped up halfway in the ditch by the leaning fence, and his right front tire hung limply from the rim. A large rock sat at the bottom of the ditch, very clearly knocked there from the road; that must have been what busted the tire. He ran a hand through his hair. He couldn’t sleep in the car like this, unless he wanted to wind up trapped under it in the ditch. He couldn’t put the spare on it unless he got it  _ out _ of the ditch, and how he was going to do that, he had no idea. 

His eyes burned suddenly, and he blinked. In his overtired state, getting in a car accident seemed like the last straw. He sat down heavily against the leaning fence, swallowing with difficulty past the knot in his throat, trying to control his breathing. He hadn’t cried in years, and he wasn’t going to start now, not over a  _ car _ . Finally he sniffed and wiped his face on his sleeve. It was still warm out, the sky scattered with more stars than he’d ever seen in his life, more stars even than in Stars Hollow. He must really be out in the sticks. He could reasonably sleep outside and figure out what to do in the morning. On the other side of the fence, the ground was soft, and smelled cleanly of dirt and grass. He stopped the engine, got out his jacket and a blanket, locked the car and laid out in the field. 

He woke up to a crusty, weathered face, and someone poking him with what appeared to be a hoe. He had never seen a hoe in person in his entire life. He turned his head. His car was being hooked up to a tow truck, and a cop was watching it. 

“What’re you doing on my property, boy?” the old man asked, his voice gravelly, his accents smoothed out. Another cop was standing next to him, his arms folded.

“I’m sorry, sir,” said Jess, sitting up, blinking at the sun rising over the hills. 

“Son,” said the cop standing next to the old man. “You’d better have a dang good reason for trespassing here on Mr. Nichols’ land.”

Something about being called “son” grated on Jess’ nerves, but this was hardly a good moment to get irritated. 

“I didn’t mean to, sir. I was passing through, looking for somewhere to stop for the night, and I accidentally got stuck in the ditch. It was late, so I figured I’d crash here until I could find a way out.”

“Well, son,” said the cop, writing something on a pad, “that’s trespassing for a start, and destruction of property to Mr. Nichols’ fence here. Reckless driving, too.”

“Reckless driving?” said Jess incredulously. “With respect, this road is pitch-black at night -”

“And it’s on Mr. Nichols’s property,” cut in the cop. “You shouldn’t have been here to start with, young man.”   
“I didn’t know. I’m just passing through.”

“I know, I see your plates,” said the cop. “You got a license and proof of registration?”

“They’re in the car,” muttered Jess, getting up clumsily. He hopped the crazily-leaning fence, jumped the ditch and managed to stop the tow driver before he loaded his car onto the bed.

“Here,” he said, thrusting his license and registration at the cop, who was now standing in the road with Mr. Nichols and the second cop. 

“Out of state license,” grunted the second cop. “Sonny, we’ll be impounding your car, and we’re going to have to bring you in to issue your citation.”

“Wait, no - you can’t do that - everything I own is in that car -”

“Well, now, Mr. -” the cop glanced down at his license, “-Mariano, you’re looking at three fourth-grade misdemeanors here, one of which is a moving violation.” He waved over Jess’ shoulder; Jess spun around to see the tow truck driving away with his car on the flatbed. 

“That’ll learn ya to wreck my fence, won’t it, boy?” Jess looked at the old man’s satisfied expression, and felt his hands ball into fists. He looked out at the horizon, at Ross Road cresting over the hill, trying to think, just as an old Chevy truck appeared at the top of the hill.

“Hey, there, Coop, what’s goin’ on?” The truck slowed down, and a man was leaning out of the window, grinning at the younger cop through a thick gray beard. 

“Hey, there, Chet,” said the cop. “Nothin’ much, just dealing with a little police business here.”

To Jess’ surprise, the Chevy pulled over - to the opposite side of the road, which was apparently ditch-free - and the man got out, ambling calmly over to the gathering. 

“Good to see ya, Coop,” he said, clapping the younger officer on the back. “I see this young man’s got himself in a pickle?”

Coop drew himself up to his full height. “This young man here knocked over Mr. Nichols’ fence and trespassed on his land. Mr. Nichols wants to press charges. Doin’ my job, Chet.”

“Ah, it happens,” chuckled Chet. “Wasn’t so long ago you hit that Amish buggy with my driver’s ed car, was it?” His tone was still light, but he looked pointedly at Coop.

“No, guess not,” mumbled Coop, looking away from Jess. Chet tipped Jess an enormous wink. “Don’t mind Coop here, he loves his job and sometimes he’s a little, shall we say, over-enthusiastic. You must have had a rough night, son.”

“What makes you say that?” Jess asked, feeling his defenses go up, as friendly as Chet seemed. 

“No one sleeps in a hay field who can avoid it,” shrugged Chet. He glanced over at Mr. Nichols, and leaned in a bit. “Between you ‘n me, it’s just bad luck you hit Cy Nichols’ fence. A hundred yards down the road, you’d have hit Bill Drake’s fence - my stepfather-in-law, and a nicer old man you’ll never meet.”

Jess glanced nervously over at the cops, who were now arguing with Mr. Nichols.

“Hey, Cy,” called Chet. “You know Bill’ll be over later to help you fix your fence, right? No harm done, no need to take up these gentlemen’s time.”

“Oh, all right,” said Mr. Nichols grudgingly. “Not as if this city hoodlum would be much use to me anyway.” 

“Hey, now,” said Chet easily. “You know he didn’t mean no harm. Be neighborly, Cy.” 

Mr. Nichols stumped off with his hoe, and the cops turned back to Jess. 

“Well, now, Mr. Mariano,” said the older cop, a little more kindly now. “If Mr. Nichols isn’t looking to press charges about the trespassing, we’ll just cite you for reckless driving -”

“You know, my grand-niece drove into this ditch last summer,” mused Chet aloud, looking Coop in the eye. “On the way home from getting her permit.” His lilt laid an unexpected emphasis on the last syllable. “Drove her daddy nuts, but it’s a dicey one. I don’t like to be here at night myself, and I know this road like the back of my hand.”

Jess looked from Chet to the cops and back again. He had no idea why this stranger was sticking his neck out for him, but the cops were looking distinctly uncomfortable. 

“Now, that’s still not the worst I’ve seen,” rambled on Chet, as if he were just storytelling, but Jess rather suspected he knew exactly what I was doing. “It was your cousin’s boy I had in the car when we got stuck in that cornfield, remember, Bud?”

Bud nodded slowly. Chet laughed. “Oh, I’ve never seen anything like it! Kid jumped a ditch and landed in the cornfield. Then puked his guts out in one of the furrows. I didn’t even know my old driver’s ed car could do it.” He chuckled to himself.

Bud turned shiftily to Coop. “You know, Coop, maybe we’ve been a tad hasty here. I get your point, Chet, accidents happen.”

“Well, we’re all neighbors here,” said Chet amiably. “Gotta look out for each other, don’t we? And -” he turned to Jess “- what’s your name?”

“Jess,” answered Jess, extending a hand, which Chet grasped firmly in his horny palm. 

“-And Jess here, well, he looks like a good kid to me. He wouldn’t have slept in the hay field if he had somewhere else to go, would he?”

Bud and Coop nodded, now starting to look bored. 

“Now, y’all know Bill will take care of the fence,” said Chet genially. “And I think we can let Jess off with a warning - after all, he’s from outta town, he doesn’t know these country roads. And I  _ know _ you boys don’t want to go out of your way to the impound lot.”

“But they already took my car,” said Jess bemusedly. 

“Oh, I know,” said Chet. “Perhaps you, officers,” he gestured at the cops, “could give Becky a ride just up the road to the farmhouse? Betsy’s in town. And I’ll run young Jess out to the impound lot.”

“Sure, we can do that, Chet,” grinned Coop. Bud looked at him resignedly, and sighed. “You bet,” he grunted to Chet. 

“Great,” said Chet. He waved to the woman peering out of the truck. “Becky! Come on over!”

“Beck, I think we’ve resolved the trouble here,” he said calmly. “Just catching up with one of my old students, you know. Bud and Coop here are going to run you along to the farmhouse for breakfast.”

“Oh, sure,” said Becky, smiling up at the cops. She was very small, but the glint in her eye matched her husband’s. They exchanged a glance, and he winked at her. “Oh, Coop!” she exclaimed delightedly. “I haven’t seen you since that Amish guy followed you and Chet back to the house!” Coop’s face turned even redder at this, and Bud cleared his throat and politely opened the door of the cruiser for her. 

“OK, Jess, you all set?”   
Jess nodded, and followed Chet back to the truck. 

“Thanks,” he said awkwardly, climbing into the passenger seat. 

“Don’t mention it,” said Chet, twinkling at him. “I’ve taught driver’s ed in this town for thirty-somethin’ years. What’s the point of seeing all the teenagers at their worst if you don’t use it from time to time?”   
“Why’d you do it?”

“Why’d I  _ help  _ you? Oh, come on, it’s like I said. A hundred more yards, and you’d be having breakfast with us. And helping Bill put the fence back up, strong young buck like you.” Jess felt the corners of his mouth twitch. 

“Uh, thanks, I guess. Hey, do you know a tire shop around here?”

“Oh, sure, there’s one by the Gutberlet Chevy dealership, right down the street from the impound lot. Tell them Chet Pifer sent you, they’ll probably patch it for free.”

“Wow. Thanks.” Jess hadn’t realized that sort of thing still happened. He fell silent for a moment, watching the rolling green hills go by. 

“Y’know, Jess is my stepson’s name too,” commented Chet. Jess figured it was easier to go along with the conversation.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, Becky named him for her grandmother Jessica. Full-blooded Cherokee. Gone before I met Becky, thank heaven, I hear she was quite a scary old lady.” 

“Getting your land stolen’ll do that to you,” said Jess absently. Chet laughed. 

“Too true. So what’re you up to out here? Where are you from?”

“I don’t...that’s...it’s a long story. I just wound up here when I pulled off the freeway looking for somewhere to crash.”

“Okay, then, where are you going, son?” Somehow, this time, Jess didn’t mind being called “son” quite as much. It sounded different coming from Chet than it had from Bud.

“I don’t - I guess I’m going to my uncle’s. In Connecticut.”

“Didn’t your car have Penn plates? A little out of the way, aren’t ya?”

“Just a little,” shrugged Jess. “I’ve been traveling. Lost my business. And I lived above it, so my apartment too.”

“Oh, that’s rough,” Chet said, his voice softer. “Yeah, my boy - well, it’s Becky’s boy, but I still think of him as mine - the other Jess, he went through a tough time too at the bank in ‘08. But he’s doing great now. You’ll be fine. Your uncle gonna help you out?”

Jess shrugged. “He has before.” 

“You don’t sound so sure for a guy driving across three states to get there.”

“Twelve,” corrected Jess absently.

“Your uncle’s gonna help you out,” said Chet confidently. Jess raised an eyebrow. “C’mon, you wouldn’t be doing all this to get there if you didn’t think he’d help.” 

“Guess not,” said Jess quietly. His throat started to tighten again. He had slept badly, and now he was in a truck with a complete stranger in the middle of nowhere, having the weirdest morning of his life. And still, Chet was right. Luke would help him. Jess didn’t even know why he had made himself doubt that. Luke had slipped cash into his car when they hadn’t even been  _ speaking _ , for crying out loud. He had openly told Jess he was always there for him, which - from taciturn, unemotional Luke - was huge. He looked down at his lap; he was far enough east, now, that he would have to get in touch with him soon.

“We’re here,” said Chet abruptly, pulling into a lot. Jess looked around.

“It’s a  _ trailer _ ,” he said in confusion. 

“Yeah, that’s the Morgan County DMV. We’re in McConnelsville now, Malta’s just farmhouses,” nodded Chet. “They don’t have enough people here, though, so next year it’ll be gone and we’ll all have to go over to Muskingum County. The impound lot is the part of this lot behind the fence.”

“Thanks for the ride, Chet,” said Jess, turning in his seat. “Really. I appreciate it.” 

“Don’t you go turning over the liquor store now that I told the county police you’re a good kid,” chuckled Chet. He took Jess’ outstretched hand and shook it. “And I’m not just saying that because my nephew owns it.”

“God, how small  _ is _ this place?” muttered Jess under his breath. He never imagined there could be somewhere  _ more _ like a fishbowl than Stars Hollow. 

“Oh, it’s small, but we like it,” grinned Chet. “You take care now, Jess.”

“You too.” Jess hopped out of the truck. Chet waved as he pulled away, and Jess pounded on the door of the trailer. A middle-aged woman pulled it open. 

“Well?”

“Ma’am,” said Jess, as politely as he could. That seemed to go a long way around here. “My car was towed by the police. They said I could pick it up here.” 

“Oh, you’re the hoodlum Cy Nichols said was in his field,” she said, nodding. Jess barely stopped himself from making a crack about the town party line, and nodded. 

“Yes ma’am. It was an accident. He didn’t press charges. Officer Cooper said I could pick up my car here.”

“Well, charges or no charges, you still have to pay the impound fee. This is your car, right?” She pointed out the window of the trailer to the only car in the lot.

Jess set his jaw. “Of course.” He had gotten extraordinarily lucky, first that Chet had talked him out of trouble, then that Chet had turned out to be a decent guy and not a kidnapper. He wasn’t about to push his luck on the impound fee.

“It’ll be $200. We take cash, check and wire transfers.”

Jess’ heart sank. He had maybe $10 in cash on him. His balance had read $172.68 when he had last been to an ATM, which was before Ohio, and he needed gas. 

“Can I step outside for a minute? I’ll be right back.”   
She nodded impassively. Jess all but ran out of the trailer, sitting down on the ground next to the steps. He didn’t want to do it, didn’t like to ask, but if he didn’t, he was stuck here. He chewed his lip for a moment, wondering if Liz had ever felt this guilty about asking Luke for help. He swallowed in resignation, and pulled his cellphone out of his pocket. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Malta and McConnelsville are real places, in Morgan County, Ohio. I have some family there, so some of the people in this chapter are based on real people. I myself drove into that ditch when I was first learning to drive. This was a bit of self-indulgent nostalgia for me, but I also needed a catalyst for Jess to actually bite the bullet and reach out to Luke. I know $200 might not seem like a lot, but I think Jess & Matt & Chris would have used their savings to try to keep Truncheon running.


	4. Gimme Shelter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess shelves his pride and asks for some help for once.

“Hi, Jess? What’s up?”

“Luke - I -” Jess didn’t know quite where to start. “I need some help,” he said lamely, his voice shaking a little.

“What kind of help? Jess, are you okay?” Something seemed to tighten in Jess’ chest at the concern in Luke’s voice. It was worse, somehow, than disappointing him. 

“Luke, I wouldn’t ask if I had another option, but - could you loan me some money? I’ll pay it off, I’ll work in the diner for free, I swear.” He heard the pleading tone in his own voice. 

“How much?” 

“Two hundred bucks. My car was impounded.”

“It was  _ impounded _ ? Why? Don’t you have a parking space there?” 

Jess swallowed. “No, actually, I’m not in Philly anymore. I’m in Ohio. I got into an accident and the cops towed my car away.” 

“You were in an  _ accident _ ? Jesus, are you alright? Did you get hurt?” He heard Luke pushing his way into the pantry and shutting the door. 

“I’m fine. I’m okay,” Jess said hurriedly; he had never heard Luke’s voice so worried. 

“What the hell are you doing in  _ Ohio? _ ” 

“I -” he rubbed a hand across his face. “It’s a long story, Luke,” he said, his voice cracking slightly. “Truncheon went under, and I lost my apartment, and I went to Jimmy’s wedding - which was a huge fucking mistake, by the way - and I started driving back from California, and in Ohio I got my car stuck in a ditch and slept in a hay field, and the owner called the cops - and -” he stopped as the words got trapped in his throat. He took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to regain control. He hoped vainly that Luke could not hear the cracks around the edges of his words. He sniffed. “Anyway, the cops towed my car.”

“Jeez, Jess,” Luke’s voice came softly down the line. “That’s tough, I didn’t know. Did you get in trouble with the cops?” 

Jess had expected some sort of lecture about trespassing. Luke’s gentle tone of voice seemed like more than he deserved.

“No,” he said, his voice still watery, but steadier. “This guy came along and basically guilt-tripped them, and the farmer, into dropping the charges. But they’d already towed my car by then.”

“Okay, and you need two hundred dollars to get it back?”

“Yeah,” said Jess, feeling his breathing even out. “I’ll pay you back, I swear -”

“Don’t worry about it. Do you need a place to stay?” 

Jess felt a wave of gratitude that Luke had offered, that he didn’t make him ask.

“Yeah, Luke, that would be great, thanks,” he said, his voice choking up a little again. “I can work off my debt in the diner, if you need help.” He heard Luke sigh impatiently into the phone. 

“Look, Jess, I’m not doing this because I want my money back. Just suck it up and let me help you out, okay?” 

Jess’ eyes burned again, and he screwed them shut, but his throat seemed to mostly work. 

“Okay. Thanks. Really,” he managed, his voice sounding strained even to his own ears. 

“Do they take wire transfers?” Luke’s gruff practicality cut across his tightly wound thoughts. 

“Uh, yeah, they do. Hold on, let me get the information.”

He ducked back into the trailer and held the phone to his chest while the woman wrote everything down on a Post-It. He read it off to Luke, who hung up to call the bank. Jess stood outside, waiting for a call back, leaning heavily against the trailer. His breathing was steadier now, and the tightness in his chest seemed to have eased slightly. 

For the first time since the stars last night, it struck him how beautiful the scenery was. It was still early in the morning, and a light mist seemed to be rising from the green hills surrounding the narrow street. It looked like a painting, like the naïve art Chris’ ex had liked - for a while, there had been Betsy Ross Koller and Grandma Moses lithos on Truncheon’s wall. He and Matt had made fun of it, but now, he could have been standing in one of the bucolic scenes. He made a mental note somewhere not to mock artists anymore, and tipped his head back into the trailer, watching the pale green light of dawn give way to a deepening blue as the sun rose higher. 

\----

His phone rang again, and he flipped it open in a rush.

“Jess, it’s fine, the wire went through. How’d you end up in McConnelsville? Where the hell even  _ is _ McConnelsville?”

“Morgan County, Ohio,” Jess responded glibly, relaxing somewhat. 

“That’s helpful,” snorted Luke. Jess heard Luke typing, then his voice again. “MapQuest shows it really far out in the sticks.”

“Yeah, I did say I slept in a hay field, right?”   
“You should have said something. I could have sent you money for a motel.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not, but you’re coming here?”

“Yeah.”

“MapQuest says you should be here by this evening. What do you want for dinner?”

“Dinner?” 

“Yes, dinner. It says you’re a nine-hour drive away. That puts you here around closing, I was going to close early tonight. Anything you want me to cook? I’ve been honing my craft while Lorelai’s been out of town.”   
Something warm seemed to be dissolving the remains of the knot in Jess’ chest. He felt his face cracking into a smile; he had almost forgotten what that felt like. 

“Lasagna,” he said decidedly into the phone. Luke chuckled.

“Sure, lasagna,” he said. “And, kid?”

“Yeah?”

“Drive safe, will you? I’ve met my quota of scary-ass phone calls for the day.” 

Jess could hear the genuine sentiment that Luke couched in brusque humor, and felt a little warmer still. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a shorter one. But enjoy!


	5. But My Bed is in a Small Town

Jess drove. And drove. The rolling hills of east Ohio turned into the forests of west Pennsylvania, then the grimy manufacturing areas around Pittsburgh. The tire had been swiftly patched, for free, by a feisty woman who had turned out to be yet another of Chet’s driver’s ed students. Jess wondered how, exactly, she made a living if everyone in the town had been taught to drive by Chet, but he had very little energy left to think about it. The five or six hours’ sleep in a field had been dramatically insufficient, and the highly-charged morning had left him drained. He didn’t even process that he was hungry until 11am, and bought a handful of day-old pastries and two cups of coffee from a bakery, figuring that would do to keep him alive and awake until he could get back to Stars Hollow. 

He couldn’t remember the last time someone had cooked for him. Honestly, it had to have been Luke; he didn’t know anyone else who cooked. Luke had made lasagna for his eighteenth birthday after Jess had flat-out refused his offer to bake a cake. He remembered the grin on Luke’s face when Jess had - sincerely, for once - complimented his cooking. God, Jess’ opinion seemed to  _ matter _ so much to Luke that it still surprised him. Liz had never seemed to care much what Jess thought. Or what Luke thought, for that matter. 

At least that was something, thought Jess morosely. He might be destined for a life of failure like Liz, but at least he didn’t  _ want _ Luke to have to pick up the pieces. He supposed, at this point, that there wasn’t any doubt that Luke would, if he had to; he always had. Jess absentmindedly pulled down the sun visor, remembering when Luke had slipped envelopes of cash there in his old car. Luke had given him money without asking, let him stay when he hadn’t deserved it, practically forced Andrew to stock  _ The Subsect _ , even made him quit smoking. He had cut Luke a check two years ago, he realized, not because that was what he  _ owed _ Luke, but because he didn’t know how to say what the two grand had meant. That Luke had been the most stable presence in his life. That Luke had been the only person who had never given up on him. That Luke, even more than Rory, was the reason he had - for a time, anyway - made something of his life. 

_ Damn _ , he was getting maudlin in his old age, he reflected, still fiddling with the sun visor as he cut through the corner of New York that stood between him and Connecticut. New York seemed strange, now, too busy, too crowded after Philadelphia. It was funny to think of it being  _ home _ once, now that he was so unused to the noise. He had liked the noise as a kid, he remembered, because it drowned out everything else. Now it just seemed to occupy too much space in his underslept brain. 

He reached Connecticut with the sun behind him. Somehow, being almost - well, not  _ home _ , exactly, but at least close to it - made the driving seem harder. His head hurt. His throat was scratchy. He tried to ignore it, drinking bottles of water surreptitiously refilled at gas stations, but it didn’t help. God, if he was getting  _ sick _ now, on top of the dumpster fire that was the last month, he might throw something. Luke wouldn’t let him work in the diner if he had a cold. 

His eyes started itching by the time he pulled into Stars Hollow. He sat in his car a minute, across the street from the diner, watching the last people get kicked out by Caesar. The lights were on upstairs. Luke must have let Caesar close while he made dinner. It occurred to Jess that Luke  _ never _ closed early on Tuesdays, which meant Luke hadn’t been planning to close early; he’d done it to spare Jess from the eyes of the town, for which Jess found himself profoundly grateful. Even if Lorelai was out of town, he doubted everyone else would be any less inclined to question his sudden reappearance. 

Jess waited until Caesar had left, then slung his bag over his shoulder and strode up to the door, finding the key in the same place it had been forever, and letting himself in. He wasn’t quite sure how to announce his presence; the prodigal-son act wasn’t easy to navigate, even if it wasn’t his first time. Before, he might have busted in in broad daylight, pushing through any awkwardness with prickly aggression. Luke didn’t deserve that. Not this time. He settled for quietly going upstairs and knocking tentatively on the frosted glass of the apartment door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! The action will pick up a little more in the next chapter, I promise. I just really like exploring the way Jess would feel about his relationship with Luke, especially now when he's under a lot of stress. Also, driving a long way when you're sleep-deprived and underfed is the absolute worst and it sets up another couple of things for the next parts.


	6. I had to phone someone so I picked on you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess finally makes his way back to Stars Hollow.

“Jess?” Luke pulled open the door. 

“That’s me,” responded Jess. “Thanks for letting me crash.”

Luke’s face cracked into a grin. “No problem. It’s good to see you, kid.”

“You too,” said Jess, and he meant it - something about Luke radiated stability, something reliable and solid. “It smells really good in here,” he added, hitching his bag on his shoulder as he stepped in. Luke clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past.

“It should. I don’t usually make lasagna in the summer,” said Luke, turning back to the stove. “Good timing,” he added as a timer dinged from somewhere near the sink. He went to extract a baking dish from the oven as Jess dropped his bag near his old bed and went to wash his hands. 

Even to his own gaze in the mirror, he looked pretty rough. The accumulated effects of sleeping in his car for a week were evident in the deep hollows under his eyes, his rumpled clothes, his unwashed hair and unshaven face. His eyes were a little bloodshot. There was a streak of dirt on his T-shirt from where Nichols had poked him with the hoe. He suspected, if the rich, warming scent of lasagna hadn’t been curling around the door, that the air in the bathroom would be pretty ripe.

He strode back over to the table, and dropped into a chair, pressing the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. 

“You good?” he heard Luke say, over the sound of plates being taken out. 

Jess nodded, not looking up. His eyes were still itching, and he was past the point of caring whether it was from exhaustion or he really was getting sick. He scrubbed his fists across his eyes, and looked up just as Luke set down a bowl of salad on the table.

Luke looked at him for a second, one eyebrow raised.

“Really, I’m fine,” Jess insisted. “Just tired is all.”

“Sure,” said Luke skeptically, now putting messy squares of lasagna onto plates. “Here -” he handed Jess a plate, and Jess took it with a muttered word of thanks. Luke extracted a pitcher of water from the fridge, sat down across from Jess, and helped himself to salad. Jess dug into the lasagna, suddenly realizing how hungry he was. He hadn’t even eaten sitting at a table in weeks - the table at Truncheon had been one of the first things to go. 

Finally, after two helpings of salad and another large portion of lasagna carved out of the baking dish, he sat back, feeling warm and full and calmer than he had been in days.

“I’m impressed,” nodded Luke at his empty plate. “And I’m used to _Lorelai_.” 

“Road trips work up an appetite,” said Jess, stretching lazily in his chair. 

“I’ll say. Did you get anything to eat today?”

Jess shrugged. “Coffee and danish.” Luke rolled his eyes. 

“Nice to see you’re maintaining a healthy lifestyle,” he grunted. 

“Hard enough to maintain a lifestyle at all these days,” Jess shrugged. 

“Yeah, about that,” said Luke, leaning forward. Jess felt his shoulders tense again; he _really_ didn’t want to discuss the collapse of the press, not now, but there didn’t seem to be an escape.

“You should’ve told me you were having a hard time,” said Luke. “I mean, it’s not like I could’ve done anything for Truncheon, but you didn’t have to sleep in fields on your little road trip from hell.”

Jess blew out his cheeks, letting his shoulders slump. At least Luke hadn’t asked for an explanation.

“I...was busy. Settling things,” he said hesitantly. “And I didn’t want to turn out like...like Liz, begging you for a bailout whenever I screwed up.” He avoided Luke’s gaze, looking down at the table.

“You didn’t screw up.”

“Sure,” Jess shot back sarcastically. “I always dreamed of winding up homeless and unemployed. This is like a vacation.” 

“You ran a small business during the worst economy since the Depression. It didn’t work out. It happens.”

“ _You’re_ still here,” Jess pointed out obstinately.

“I’ve been here a long time. No rent, no mortgage. And people still eat in a recession,” said Luke calmly. “I almost went bust in the 90s, right when I got started.” 

Jess felt his eyebrows go up. “How come you didn’t?”

“Like I said, no mortgage. And I got really good at reusing leftovers,” said Luke. “I lived on beans and rice for a year. I got lucky.”

“That’s where the meatloaf came from, huh?” Jess raised an eyebrow semi-mockingly, feeling slightly better. 

“Hey, I’m not lying when I say it’s my mom’s recipe. Her “recipe” was just whatever was in the fridge,” said Luke, smiling slightly. 

“The truth comes out,” said Jess, tilting his chair back a little.

“So, do I wanna know about California? Or Ohio?” said Luke, leaning back in his chair again and looking sideways at Jess.

“Not that much to tell in California,” muttered Jess, looking down at his hands. “Sasha - Jimmy’s wife - invited me to their wedding. I went. I don’t know what I was thinking, that was a stupid-ass move.”

“Should I ask? Do I need to put his head through a wall?”

Jess gave a dark chuckle. Luke could be stupidly protective, but he had to admit the mental image was amusing. “We had words. I’m done with him. No walls necessary.” 

“Sorry it didn’t work out,” said Luke awkwardly. 

“I’m just sorry I wasted my time,” said Jess, yawning. He wanted to get past the subject of Jimmy as quickly as possible.

“And Ohio?” pressed Luke.

“Oh, that part was just ridiculous,” snorted Jess, the story seeming funnier now that the trip was over. “I cut through Ohio on the way back. Once I got east of Columbus, though, there was basically nowhere to stop for the night. I pulled off the highway and wound up in this farming town called Malta. It was totally dark, and I didn’t want to get lost, so I figured I’d just pull over onto the shoulder. Turns out the shoulder was a ditch.”

“Jeez, you didn’t fall in, did you?”  
“Not totally. I hit the corner of the fence, and it propped my car halfway up in the ditch. But I knocked over part of the fence and busted a tire on a rock. It was really late, and it was pretty warm outside, so I thought I’d just sleep in the field and figure it out in the morning.”

“And the cops came?”

“Yeah, the farmer who owned the field was a crotchety old bastard. He called the cops, and poked me with a hoe to wake me up.” Jess gestured at the streak of dirt on his shirt.

“A _farmer_ poked you with a _hoe?_ ” Luke looked as though he was trying not to laugh.

“Oh yeah. At least, I think it was a hoe. I’ve never actually seen one in person before. And he tried to press charges.”

“You mentioned. Remind me how you got out of that one?”

“This guy turned up, and his wife. Apparently his stepfather-in-law lives down the road - her stepfather, I guess - and they were passing by. Anyway, turns out Chet - that was his name - basically taught everyone in the county to drive. He told me he taught driver’s ed for like, thirty years or something. He got the cops to go easy because he taught one of them to drive and he hit an Amish buggy -”

“I’m sorry, an _Amish buggy_? What is this, a country song?” 

“Might as well be,” grunted Jess. “There’s Amish country in west Pennsylvania, I guess there are some of them in east Ohio too. And he kept talking about all his students who crashed, and how his niece drove into the same ditch, and I think the cops just got tired of it and figured they’d let me off. And the farmer let the trespassing go when Chet told him his father-in-law would help fix the fence.”

“That’s lucky.” Luke leaned back in his chair.

“You’re telling me. They still towed my car, though.”

“All the way to McConnelsville?”

“‘All the _way_ ?’ You mean, through three miles of farmland? There was _nothing_ in Malta,” Jess snorted. “McConnelsville had the Morgan County DMV, which was attached to the impound lot, and was in a damn _trailer._ I mean, I thought Stars Hollow was small. This place was _tiny_.”

“Probably why they tried to gouge you on the impound fee,” nodded Luke. Jess shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“Thanks again for that, by the way,” he muttered, looking away. “I owe you.”

“Jess, just stop, you don’t _owe_ me anything,” answered Luke, leaning back in his chair. “You really think I’d leave you stranded?”

Jess shrugged. He didn’t, but he didn’t quite know how to accept help, at least not gracefully. 

“You can do the dishes if it’ll make you feel better,” said Luke, a corner of his mouth twitching. 

Jess half-smiled, and made to grab the plates. 

“I can work in the diner, too,” he said over his shoulder, carrying a stack of dishes over to the sink.

“Sure,” said Luke lazily, leaning back in his chair. “I could use some help.”

Jess nodded as he came back over to the table and covered the remains of the lasagna. He was just clearing the salad bowl when Luke got up from the table and took it from his hand.

“Hey, kid?” Jess braced himself. Luke had gotten better at saying things. Jess hadn’t gotten much better at hearing them. 

“Mm?” He looked up. Luke grasped his shoulder.

“You scared the shit outta me this morning.” His tone wasn’t accusatory, but it still made Jess feel exceptionally guilty. 

“Sorry,” muttered Jess awkwardly. 

“You didn’t sound so good on the phone. To be honest, you don’t look so good now -“

“Gee, thanks.” He made to pick up the salad bowl again, but Luke put a hand on his other shoulder to stop him. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” 

“I’m fine.” Jess shrugged. Luke ducked his head to look him in the eye, and Jess relented. 

“ _Okay_ , it’s been a rough couple of weeks,” he said, his voice cracking just slightly. He hoped Luke had missed it. “But I’m fine. Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

“It’s okay. Just - tell me if you need help. _Before_ you get stuck in the middle of nowhere.” 

“I’m not going back there, that’s for sure,” said Jess, looking down and rubbing his eye with his fist again. 

“Hey,” said Luke. “I told you, I’m always here.”

Jess looked at him for a moment, then, partly so that Luke wouldn’t be able to see his face, pitched forward and wrapped Luke into a hug, gripping the flannel at the back of his shirt as if it were the only thing holding him up. He heard a small “ _oof”_ of surprise from Luke as his face thudded into his shoulder, then felt Luke’s arms settle around his shoulders. 

“Thanks,” muttered Jess into Luke’s shoulder, his face pressed into the flannel. He knew he was too old for this, knew it was stupid, but he also knew Luke wouldn’t say anything about whatever overly-emotional gesture Jess’ exhausted brain produced. 

“No problem,” said Luke, his voice muffled. Jess felt a hand reach up to the back of his head, cupping it gently, and he swallowed hard at the touch.

Then Luke let him go, squeezing the back of his neck briefly as they broke apart.

”Jess?”

“Yeah?”

“You smell _awful_. Get in the shower.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, a little self-indulgent, but I love Luke & Jess' relationship. Also, Jess really needs some help right now. Bonus points if you know where the chapter title came from.


	7. You Sound Like You're Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess' dramatically unhealthy lifestyle of the last week catches up to him.
> 
> Warning: sickfic. Nothing graphic, Jess just has a really bad cold.

Jess woke up the next morning with a dull headache, his throat feeling tight and dry. He sat up, and immediately regretted it.

“Ow,” he said softly, pressing a finger into his temple as his head throbbed. He tried to swallow, but his throat burned. _Damn_. He had hoped the scratchy throat and itchy eyes were just exhaustion-related. He stood up slowly, and went over to the sink for a glass of water. The sun outside the window seemed to poke him in the eye. 

“Oh, you’re up,” said Luke somewhere behind him, bursting into the apartment. “Could you hand me the backup toaster while you’re over there? Kirk just tried to jam a donut in the big one.”

Jess took a sip of water, and unplugged the backup toaster next to the sink, shuffling over to the door with it. 

“Thanks,” said Luke, reaching for the toaster, then quickly withdrew his hand as he looked at Jess and his eyes widened. “Oh, no. Absolutely not. Put down the toaster and go back to bed.”

“Just take it,” said Jess tiredly, noticing too late how rough his voice sounded.

“Get back to bed. You look like hell. I’m not bringing that down into my diner with your germs on it.” 

“Gee, thanks,” said Jess morosely, setting the toaster down on the table. Luke pulled some bleach out of the cabinet and wiped down the toaster, then washed his hands and stepped back out of the apartment with it. Jess overheard some muffled yells - at Kirk, he presumed - and Luke calling Caesar, but his brain felt slow and his headache seemed to be migrating to his sinuses. He finished the glass of water and fell back into bed, suddenly feeling cold and shaky. 

* * *

He must have dozed off, because the next thing he knew, the sun was higher in the sky and Luke’s voice broke through his hazy thoughts.

“You know, sleeping in a car for a week is really bad for your immune system.”

Jess cracked one eye open; Luke was back upstairs, doing something by the sink.

“Huh, that explains a lot,” said Jess, with an attempt at sarcasm, but being snarky seemed to take a lot of effort.

“Here,” said Luke, striding over to the bed with an enormous mug and a glass of orange juice. “I put honey in the tea, that should help.” Jess took the mug, inhaling the fragrant steam as Luke set the juice down next to the bed and went over to the bathroom. He took a sip, and it seemed to soothe his throat in a way the water hadn’t. 

Luke came back over to the bed, carrying several small bottles.

“I have Tylenol, NyQuil and…” he peered at the label on one of them, “some truly ancient cough syrup, I should probably get rid of that.” He stuck the cough syrup in his pocket and produced a digital thermometer from the other.

“Oh, come on, this is stupid -”

“Just put it in your mouth,” sighed Luke, holding it out to him. Jess gave in and shoved the thermometer in his mouth. 

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said awkwardly around the thermometer.

“Do what?” Luke was fumbling with the thermometer instructions. Jess moved the thermometer to a more comfortable place in his mouth.

“Take care of me,” he answered quietly. 

“Think you told me that once a few years ago,” said Luke. “Didn’t go so well, did it?”

The thermometer beeped, and Jess removed it from his mouth. 

“Well, I can’t have my appendix taken out _again_ ,” he answered. He looked down at the thermometer. “It’s a hundred. I’m not gonna die.” He sniffed, and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“Maybe not, but you’re staying in bed,” said Luke, taking the box of tissues off the coffee table and handing it over. “Here. Pick whichever of the drugs you want. I’d go with one that knocks you out, you look like you could use some more sleep.”

Jess nodded; talking was starting to hurt. He chased the Tylenol with some of the liquid NyQuil, then took a deep draught of orange juice. The cold liquid seemed to make his throat scratchy again, and he quickly reached for the tea, taking small sips. 

“You gonna be okay for a while here?” Luke had his head cocked to the side appraisingly. 

“M’fine,” answered Jess, setting down his mug and falling back onto the pillow. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I’ll make some chicken soup.”

“You don’t -”

“I know I don’t have to. Get some rest, kid.”

Jess nodded, and flung himself back over onto his stomach, burying his face in the pillow and waiting for the NyQuil to take effect. He heard Luke leaving the room, but not before a hand dropped onto his head for a moment, mussing his hair. 

* * *

He must have slept for a large chunk of the day; the light had changed by the time he woke up again. The headache had faded to a dull pain somewhere behind his eyes, but his sinuses still hurt. He blew his nose gingerly into a tissue, realizing as he did so that there was something stuck to his face. He pulled a yellow Post-It off his forehead in confusion and stared at it blearily until the scribbles resolved themselves into words in Luke’s handwriting.

_Chicken soup on the stove if you’re hungry. Needed to run errands. Call if you need something from the drugstore._

Jess shuffled over to the stove, where an enormous lidded Dutch oven sat, a ladle on the spoon rest. He hated eating when he was sick, but his stomach made a loud noise as he fumbled for a bowl, and he supposed chicken soup was the least offensive option possible. He lifted the lid of the pot to a cloud of steam, and inhaled deeply; it felt soothing on his sinuses. He looked down through the steam. Matzo balls. Of course. Luke was much too set in his ways to even consider noodles. He ladled himself a bowl and sat down at the table to eat. He had to hand it to Luke, he thought vaguely as he sipped at the broth; this was probably the one thing that wouldn’t be painful to swallow. 

He put his bowl in the sink and flopped back on his bed, fishing _The Old Man and The Sea_ out from the bag sitting next to his bed. He flipped back through it to where he had left off the last time, but apparently, it wasn’t indefinitely rereadable. The words seemed to buzz around his head until he decided it was time for another Tylenol. 

He eventually gave up on the Hemingway and went over to Luke’s bookshelf. He had made fun of the empty spaces, years ago, but it really wasn’t such a bad selection. There was a lone copy of _The Subsect_ jammed in the middle of a dense stack of cookbooks; he ran a finger over the spine. It had actually been broken. He slid it out with a finger. Several pages were dog-eared. Luke had _read_ it. He felt a little warm inside, and pushed it back in between the cookbooks. He didn’t need to look at it now.

He scanned the rest of the shelf, his eyes starting to itch again. There was a box set of Austen novels that he strongly suspected was Rory’s doing. _A Brief History of Time_ , which he doubted very much that Luke had bought for himself; maybe that was April. His own very battered copy of _On The Road._ A bunch of the usuals that looked a lot like the Stars Hollow High reading list. A long row of Agatha Christies that Jess was sure hadn’t been there last time; Luke read _mysteries?_ He snorted a little, then realized that was a bad idea when his sinuses burned again. He grabbed a book without looking at it and threw it on the bed as he crossed back over to the kitchen for another cup of tea. 

He returned to the bed, holding the tea under his nose, inhaling the steam. Then he spotted the book he had selected at random. _The Cake Bible_. Just his luck. He slumped back on the pillows, sipping the tea, trying to decide if it was worth the effort to get back up and go over to the bookshelf, which right now felt like miles away. Eventually, he gave up and flicked open the cover. 

He wasn’t sure if it was the Tylenol or the cold rendering him delusional, but _The Cake Bible_ was much more engrossing than he had expected. He was just reading about the best way to glaze an apple Charlotte - which, ten minutes ago, he hadn’t known existed - when Luke came back into the apartment.

“You’re reading _The Cake Bible?”_ asked Luke, the corner of his mouth twitching.

“You read _Agatha Christie?”_ Jess shot back hoarsely.

“Fair point. I take it you’re feeling better?”

Jess nodded. “I think it’s the drugs. Or the soup. Or a combination thereof.”

“You sound terrible. Stay hydrated,” said Luke, walking in with a drugstore bag and handing it to Jess. “Here. I got you some cold medicine. And some tea that’s supposed to be good.”

“What the hell is slippery elm bark?” asked Jess, turning over the box in his hand. 

“I don’t know, but there’s some old hippie working there now, she was big on the herbal stuff. I got you the Swiss cough drops she recommended.” Luke was now rummaging around in a drawer.

“Thanks,” said Jess fervently; his throat was still scratchy. He pulled one out of the bag marked “Kraüter” and popped it in his mouth.

“This thing tastes like Jägermeister,” he said thickly around the cough drop. Luke raised an eyebrow, turning away from the drawer with the good ladle. “What? I’m twenty-four,” said Jess, as innocently as he could. A corner of Luke’s mouth twitched. 

“You need any other reading material? Kirk’s just appointed himself the library’s new delivery boy.”

“I can’t really absorb much right now,” said Jess, leaning back on the pillows again and yawning hugely. “I’m good with Rose here for the moment. You should consider putting these crepe things on the menu.”

“What things?”

“These things. I don’t know. They look good.” Jess held up the book to the page of color photos.

“Oh, _Crèpes Suzette_ ,” nodded Luke. “Over Taylor’s dead body. They’ve got Grand Marnier in them, and he still won’t let the council issue liquor licenses. Even if the alcohol’s cooked off.”

“‘ _Crèpes Suzette’_?” repeated Jess, exaggerating Luke’s accent, then stopping abruptly as it scraped at his throat. 

“Don’t laugh, I took three years of French in high school. And are you OK?” 

Jess had started coughing, his scratchy throat finally getting the best of him. He managed to nod between coughs, and grabbed at the bag of weird Swiss cough drops again. The cough drops tasted medicinal enough, and seemed to help at least a little, but he coughed a few more times into a tissue before it subsided. 

“French is a cruel language,” he tried to say, but it came out so hoarse that he wasn’t sure he had succeeded in making any sound at all. He gave up and flung himself back into the pillow again, returning to the section on charlottes. 

* * *

He must have fallen asleep again, because he woke up to the light of the setting sun streaming through the window and the lingering notes of a guitar playing some bad cover of “Good Vibrations”. He got up and slammed the window shut, wondering grumpily why on earth anyone still let the town troubadour disturb the peace like that. Especially when there had been so many complaints about _his_ stereo that Luke had bought him headphones for use during opening hours. He dropped back onto the bed. _The Cake Bible_ lay open next to the pillow, but the desserts had lost their appeal now that his nasal passages were completely blocked; he could not smell a single thing from the diner, and it had to be the middle of the dinner rush. He closed the book and set it on the nightstand, noticing as he did so a thermos that hadn’t been there before. Luke must have left it for him after he fell asleep. 

He had made his way over to the couch with the thermos and a copy of _The Mousetrap_ and begun flipping through the channels when Luke reappeared. 

“You all good? I put the soup in the fridge, but you can reheat some for dinner.”

“Not hungry,” grunted Jess morosely. 

“You have to eat,” Luke pointed out. “But listen, you’re going to be OK up here tonight? I don’t usually like sleeping at Lorelai’s when she’s not home, but I don’t want to catch whatever this is.” He gestured vaguely in Jess’ direction. “No offense,” he added hastily. 

“None taken,” answered Jess hoarsely. “I told you, you don’t have to worry about me. Go. I’m fine.”  
“That would be a lot more convincing if you didn’t sound like you just aged a hundred years,” said Luke. “Drink your tea. Get some rest. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Goodnight,” Jess managed, but it came out closer to a whisper. He closed his eyes for a second.

“‘Night, kid. Get some sleep,” he heard Luke say, then the door to the apartment closed behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so the song lyrics as chapter titles thing is a little cheesy, but forgive me. I happen to love the Ramones. Also, I kinda like Luke being caring through a crusty exterior. Don't worry, there'll be more characters in the next chapter.


	8. This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Two of Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taylor gets riled up at the Town Meeting.

Jess parked his car in the usual spot by the town square. It was getting late; he had agreed to visit Luke’s Woodbridge suppliers without realizing how incredibly _chatty_ they all were. No wonder Luke had been so eager to pawn off the task, he thought - no way could Luke handle hearing about all six of the meat guy’s cats and their various ailments. He himself had barely been able to stay awake, and had only escaped by claiming the dairy supplier would overcharge him if he was late.

He picked up his laptop bag - he’d swung into a Starbucks in Woodbridge for the WiFi - and got out, strolling through the quiet, warm evening air. Then he heard a gaggle of voices, and saw the light spill out of a door that was opening and closing at the other end of the square.

It was town meeting night; how had he forgotten? It was the one thing about Stars Hollow’s madness he had actually enjoyed, once he had figured out this was the best way to watch Luke and Taylor yell at each other. He strolled up to the door and leaned up against the wall; he was late, and he didn’t need a dressing-down from Taylor for disrupting the meeting. 

Taylor’s voice emanated from the crack in the door.

“Now, a matter for the business community. We need to discuss the Jess situation -”

“Are you serious, Taylor? What situation _?_ He’s only been here a few days, and he’s been in bed sick most of that time,” Jess heard Luke say impatiently. He grinned to himself; this was exactly the sort of thing he had missed. 

“Luke, obviously he’s in some kind of trouble, and we all know how _irresponsible_ he can be, I’m just trying -”

“Trying to stir up trouble? He’s a grown man, Taylor, he’s been doing just fine out in the real world for a while -”

“Until now,” interrupted Taylor, sounding disapproving. Jess felt a wave of annoyance; _he_ could talk, it wasn’t as if grocery retailers had been hit badly by the recession.

“Oh, knock it off, Taylor. Rory was at home for two months after the campaign, Andrew’s daughter crashed above the bookstore awhile - you do realize, outside of the giant snowglobe that is this town, that other people are struggling in this economy?” 

“But Luke, this is crazy. What are you thinking, just letting him stay as long as he wants?” 

“I’m thinking if it were anyone else’s kid, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, but you’re just mad because it’s _Jess_ , who by the way is a published author -”

“And a damn fine slice, now he’s grown up and filled out a bit,” cut in Patty. Jess suppressed a chuckle. He had made all of one brief appearance downstairs in the diner so far, and Patty had still managed to corner him, pinch his bicep and ask him if he had been working out. 

“ _Thank_ you, Miss Patty,” said Taylor quellingly. “Luke, it doesn’t matter if Jess is a published author, he still has a history of immature behavior, and I for one have lost business in the past -”

“I reimbursed you all _five_ _dollars_ that you supposedly lost, at the outside,” sighed Luke. “What do you want me to do, not help out my kid when he lost his job?” 

_My kid_ . Something about those words in Luke’s voice swirled around Jess’ head for a second. Luke called him kid all the time, and he was used to it, but he didn’t remember him ever saying “ _my_ kid”. 

“Yeah, Taylor, this is just petty,” came in a voice that Jess recognized as Andrew’s. 

“You’re only saying that because he was your best customer when he lived here!” answered Taylor with frustration.

“Ahem. Second best,” cut in a loud and very familiar voice. “After Rory.”

Jess jumped a little; he had forgotten that Lorelai would be back in town today. 

“Fine, second best,” conceded Andrew. “And the phony murder was funny, Taylor, you should see that by now.” There was a murmur of assent throughout the room.

“I’m in the business community, and I got no problem with Jess,” said a sharp voice from the corner. “He doesn’t fix his own car, so that’s business for me.” Gypsy sounded satisfied. 

“Actually, Gypsy, I may have taught him a few things,” Luke said, sounding a little apologetic. 

“Oh well. He paid me cash for my work, and he paid on time. I still got no problem with him.”

“I don’t know. I’m with Taylor,” said a slow, slightly whiny voice. “He was no good, that one.” Jess leaned closer to the door, trying to remember to whom that voice belonged.

“That was five years ago, Bootsy,” said Luke exasperatedly. “And is this still about that fight we supposedly had in the sixth grade?”

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” he heard Lorelai chant, but it was muffled, as if she had something in her mouth.

“Lorelai, sugar, can I have one of those Red Vines?” Babette’s voice was close to the cracked-open door, and Jess jumped a little again. Then he heard a thud that sounded like a bag of Red Vines being flung across the room and hitting the door, which nudged it open just enough for him to see inside. Then a pair of heavily made-up eyes met his as he peered through the crack.

“Oh, Jess, sweetheart, what’re you doing out here? Come on in,” she said. “He’s right out here!” she called over her shoulder into the room. 

“Good, get him in here, he can fight his own battles,” he heard Luke grunt from the front of the room.

“That I can,” said Jess with a slight smirk, looking at Taylor’s dumbstruck face as he sidled into Miss Patty’s studio. “Hey, everyone,” he gave an awkward wave to all the faces turned towards him. 

“Hi, Jess! Have you met my _fiancée_?” said Kirk, breaking the silence with an overly cheery voice, laying great emphasis on the last word.

“Hi, Lulu,” said Jess resignedly. Lulu waved at him. Jess looked around, and cleared his throat. Everyone in the room was still staring at him. 

“Well, guess you all know I’m crashing at Luke’s, but it’s just temporary until I get another job. You mind not picking on him for it?” He looked pointedly at Taylor. 

“No shenanigans, young man,” said Taylor, looking back at him. “I haven’t forgotten -”

“Your ability to hold a grudge astounds me,” said Jess in mock wonderment, “and for something you have no proof I did...” he trailed off as Taylor spluttered in frustration. Jess grinned as he found a free seat and sat down.

“Please, continue,” he said in the politest tone he could muster, extending a hand to Taylor. Taylor looked furiously at him, but Jess merely set his elbows on his knees and rested his chin on his hands, endeavoring to look as innocent as he possibly could. 

Taylor gulped a couple of times, his face still red. “All _right_ ,” he said resignedly. “Moving on. I’d like to discuss bringing back the Stars Hollow End of Summer Festival…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised more characters in this chapter. Because I absolutely love the ongoing Luke-Taylor feud. Comment if you liked it (and which characters you want to see more of)!


	9. Which to Bury; Us or the Hatchet?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess starts working in the diner again, and encounters a familiar face.

“Hey,” called Luke through the people filtering out of Patty’s studio. Jess caught his eye and slowed down, carefully avoiding Taylor’s path.

“You get around to the meat guy? And the dairy people?” Luke asked, falling into step next to Jess in the direction of the diner.

“Yep. They signed the new contracts.”

“Good. Thanks for doing that. And for shutting up Taylor. Did us all a favor.”

“Yeah, well, I learned from the best,” said Jess, with a slight yawn. “Any chance I could work in the front of the house at some point?” 

“I don’t know.” Luke was eyeballing him appraisingly. “You stopped coughing?”

“All except the smoker’s cough.” 

“Didn’t you quit?” 

Jess sighed impatiently. “I’m  _ kidding _ . You  _ know  _ I quit. You  _ made  _ me quit.”

“That one stuck, huh?” 

“Just get back to the point,” said Jess, leaning on the doorframe. 

“Okay.  _ If _ you’re healthy, you can work in the diner. But one cough, and you’re done for the day. I am  _ not _ having you spread germs to half the town.” 

“No patient zero. Got it.”

“Lane and Zack are going on some kind of Seventh-Day Adventist tour again with Mrs. Kim and Steve and Kwan. That means you can have the lunch shift every day if you want. And breakfast three days a week. You can start tomorrow.”

“Sure. Thanks,” Jess nodded at Luke.

“Everything’s still in the same place. Menu hasn’t changed. I raised the price of toast by ten cents. Make sure Kirk pays it.”

“Do I want to know?” 

“It‘s Kirk, of course you don’t.”

“Okay. Breakfast tomorrow, then?”   


“See you at five thirty.” 

Jess groaned, and went inside. 

* * *

Long after Jess had been shaken awake at an ungodly hour and gone through the familiar motions of swinging the chairs down onto the floor, making coffee, and tuning out Luke arguing with Caesar about French toast, the bell on the door dinged. He looked up from the counter to see a familiar figure striding in.

“So, you’re back.”

“Seems that way,” said Jess offhandedly, filling a cup with coffee and handing it to Lorelai before she could ask. 

“Still chatty, I see,” she said. “You use it all up at the town meeting?”

“Guess so,” he said shortly, turning back to the counter. 

“You struck Taylor dumb. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.” She was trying to catch his eye as he walked around the counter with the coffee pot. Or she was just fixated on the coffee, he thought wryly. Either way, it was much too early in the morning for a needling from Lorelai. 

“Has to happen sometime,” he shrugged as he returned behind the counter. “Anything to eat?”

“Banana nut pancakes and a minute of your time outside,” she said cheerfully, smiling at him across the counter. He raised an eyebrow at her. 

“C’mon, Jess,” she said in a wheedling tone. “If you don’t, I’ll get on my phone and you’ll be obligated per Luke’s rule to kick me out.”

“Fine,” he sighed, handing the ticket through the window to Caesar and untying his apron. They stepped outside. Jess inwardly thanked his lucky stars there was no one on the street to watch him get chewed out for whatever it was that Lorelai was taking issue with. 

“Nice to see you again, Lorelai,” he said, barely keeping a sarcastic note out of his voice. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Listen, Jess, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye,” she began. Jess felt his eyebrows climb even higher up his forehead. Lorelai let out a sigh. “I just think, you know, if you’re going to be staying here a while, you and I should maybe...think about burying the hatchet. For Luke’s sake.”

“Really?” Jess was so surprised he couldn’t even muster any sarcasm.

“Yeah. I know I came down pretty hard on you when you first came here, and then when you were dating Rory, but...by the sounds of it, you grew up pretty good.” 

At this, Jess stared at her in open shock. 

“Look, Jess,” she began again, looking uncertainly at his face, “I’m prepared to eat a moderate amount of crow here to keep the peace. You’re important to Luke, and Luke’s important to me, so by the transitive property -”

“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘the  _ transitive property’ _ ?” Jess snorted, unable to stop himself.

Lorelai sighed. “It’s April. She’s been talking so much with Luke that I finally started understanding  _ algebra. _ ” She shuddered, a look of mock horror on her face, then continued. “Anyway, I care about Luke, and he cares about you. And I’ll admit I  _ may _ have been wrong about...some things.”   
He looked carefully at her expression. She definitely looked like she was in earnest. And it would make Luke’s life easier, he supposed, if he and Lorelai were on good terms. Or at least halfway-decent terms.

“Yeah, maybe I was wrong about some things too,” he said uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck. He was pretty sure he had more to be forgiven for than Lorelai did, especially regarding Rory, but if she was in a mood to make amends, he wasn’t going to get picky. 

“Eh, water under the bridge, bygones, whatever,” she said, waving a hand as if it was nothing. 

“If you say so,” he said, a little awkwardly. 

“I do say so. Friends, then?” She extended a hand out to him.

“Sure,” he said, shaking it, some part of him still not quite believing he was having this conversation with  _ Lorelai Gilmore _ . 

“So, how’re things? Luke said you were sick last week?” 

“Uh, yeah,” he said, a little taken aback by the abrupt shift to small talk. “I’m fine now, though, Luke wouldn’t let me work in the diner until I stopped coughing.”

“Good man. He knows how weak my immune system is after not eating a vegetable in six years.”

“You could try his zucchini bread. Tastes like cake. Full of vegetables.”

“Ugh,” said Lorelai, looking disgusted. “It’s the principle of the thing. Cake should  _ not _ have vegetables. I can’t know it’s in there, it ruins it.” She made a face at him. 

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, then,” said Jess with a slight smirk. “Luke probably slips you vegetables all the time.”

Lorelai gave an exaggerated gasp. “Oh, he would  _ never -” _

“Did it to me a few times,” shrugged Jess. “I wouldn’t put it past him.” He was grinning now, actually grinning at  _ Lorelai Gilmore _ . He was  _ definitely  _ going soft, he reflected grimly, but at least Luke would be happy.

“He’s happy you’re here, you know,” she said, smiling at him. “It’s been a while.” Jess didn’t quite know what to say to this, so he just dipped his head, still smiling.

“Oh, I think those are my pancakes!” said Lorelai excitedly, pointing back through the window. 

“Better get back inside,” muttered Jess, turning back to the door, grateful the diner was still relatively quiet. He held the door for her, figuring he may as well make more of an effort this time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think Lorelai got over her animosity towards Jess once he grew up. Especially once Rory became an adult (and made some questionable non-Jess-related romantic decisions).


	10. Mama's Gonna Put All of Her Fears Into You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liz calls. Jess opens up a little to Luke.

The phone rang, and Jess jumped; he had been engrossed in honing an email to a publisher friend of Matt's so that it didn’t  _ quite _ sound like groveling. In the several minutes it would take to actually  _ send _ , on Luke’s ancient dial-up connection, he would probably find something else wrong with it. 

Luke sighed into his produce orders, stumped over and answered the phone. 

“Oh, hi, Liz. How’s the Ren Faire circuit?”

“Good, glad to hear it. Not too bad.”

“Who told you that?”

“God, Carrie’s a nut.”   
A deep sigh. “No, she’s not making it up. He’s just staying a little while.”

“I don’t know. He’s figuring it out. Not too long.”

“Liz, he’s a grown man, I can’t  _ make _ him do anything.” Jess felt his hackles rise. 

“Just - one sec -” Luke held the phone to his chest. “Jess, it’s your mom, she wants to talk to you.”

“I’m not here,” hissed Jess angrily. Luke looked surprised, but nodded. 

“Uh, Liz, he just stepped out - “

“I don’t know. Not here.”

“Again, Liz, he’s an  _ adult _ .”

“Fine. Say hi to Doula and TJ.” Luke hung up the phone and turned around to look at Jess.

“Should I ask?”

“Wow. There was a time you’d’ve dragged me into the pantry and not let me out until I spilled.”

“Yeah, well, you’re twenty-four years old. If it’s between the two of you, it’s between the two of you.” Luke paused. “But she is my sister, and she’s screwed up more than a few times with you as far as I’m concerned, so if you  _ wanted _ to tell me -“

“She gave Jimmy my number,” Jess said abruptly.

“Oh,” said Luke, a little awkwardly. Jess had studiously avoided talking about Jimmy or the trip to California since he had arrived, and Luke had not pressed the subject. 

“I mean, it was my choice to go to the wedding,” said Jess. “I don’t blame her for that. But I  _ told  _ her not to give out my number. To  _ anyone _ . And she knows what a piece of shit he is and she gave it to  _ him _ .”

Luke opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, then shook his head and shut it again. 

“What?” asked Jess, a little more aggressively than he’d meant to. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Just - if you have something to say -”

Luke chewed the corner of his mouth for a second. “I told you, I never liked him very much -”

“I know -” 

“- but I don’t think Liz meant any harm by it.”

“She never does.”

“Yeah, I guess not,” agreed Luke.

“Doesn’t mean it’s harmless.”

“I know that, too,” said Luke, looking keenly at Jess as he sat back down at the table. “Is that why you haven’t told Liz that Truncheon shut down?”   
Jess shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”

“I didn’t tell her, but she’ll find out,” pointed out Luke, now leaning back in his chair.

“I’m not  _ hiding _ it from her, I just don’t want to talk to her,” muttered Jess, slumping down behind his laptop screen.

“You told  _ me _ ,” said Luke, his tone slightly questioning, now.

“Yeah, well,” said Jess uncomfortably. “I kinda had to, didn’t I?”

“Give me some credit. I’d probably have figured it out.”

“You mean, when I showed up here and just...didn’t leave?”

“Yeah, pretty much. You already told me you guys were in trouble.”

“Yeah. And I kinda sugarcoated it for you.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t -“ Jess hesitated. “I didn’t want you to know we failed. That  _ I _ failed. It  _ sucked _ . I mean, we killed ourselves trying to keep it together and it didn’t work. It was almost like if I told you, it would make it real.”

“You know a hundred thousand small businesses shut down since ‘08, right?”

“I know,” sighed Jess. Luke was making sense, and he knew him well enough to know Luke wouldn’t blow smoke up his ass, but the sting was taking a while to fade. 

“I know I’d be a mess if I thought I’d lose this place. I never even told anyone I came close back in the 90s, not until I told you the other day.”

“Why not?” Jess asked, realizing as he said it that he, of all people, knew  _ exactly _ why not.

“Well, you know.” Luke gestured vaguely with his hand at Jess. “And in ‘91 you were, what? Five? Six?”

“About that, yeah,” answered Jess, nonplussed.

“You and your mom moved twice that year. She was having a hard time. I chipped in some cash for a deposit on a new place. I wasn’t going to tell her I was having trouble too. And there wasn’t really anyone else to tell.”

“What? How’d you swing that?”

“I barely did. I skipped a few meals. It worked out in the end.”

“You shouldn’t’ve done that, Liz was drunk half that year -“ Jess protested.

“I wouldn’t’ve if she didn’t have you. If it had been just her, I’d have let her lose the place. She’d probably have moved in with Crazy Carrie,” snorted Luke.

“You did that for  _ me _ ?”

“That’s what family does, kid. At least, it’s what they’re supposed to do.”

“I didn’t know,” said Jess quietly.

“You were six. You weren’t supposed to know.”

“Why’d you tell me now?”

“You could probably stand to hear that other people have bad runs, no matter how hard they try,” shrugged Luke.

“That was supposed to make me  _ feel _ better?” asked Jess incredulously.

“Is it working?” 

Jess bit his tongue on the sarcastic reply that was queued up in his mind and thought about it. If he was honest with himself, it  _ had _ made him feel slightly better to hear that Luke’s ordinarily stable business had had a shaky period. But that small moment of relief had been utterly smothered by what Luke had said next.

“You shouldn’t’ve gone hungry for me,” he said stubbornly. “I’m not worth -”

“ _ Stop _ ,” interrupted Luke. Jess looked up in surprise at his suddenly angry tone. 

“Don’t ever let me hear you say that again,” ground out Luke, looking Jess directly in the eye. “You hear me?”

Startled, Jess nodded. Luke continued, still fixing him sternly.

“You were a kid. I was an adult. I made a choice. It  _ was _ worth it.”

“But I -” Jess still couldn’t quite buy Luke’s justification. 

“You are worth every sacrifice anyone’s ever made for you,” said Luke, tapping the table to emphasize his point, “and between you and me, a lot of people - myself included - should have made more.”

“You did enough,” said Jess quietly, trying to avoid Luke’s gaze. He looked down at the table, trying to absorb the fact that Luke had  _ skipped meals _ for him. Almost twenty years ago, but still. His own father had run out with far less of an excuse than Luke had had, and Luke had still gone hungry for the sake of a kid that wasn’t even his. 

“I don’t know,” sighed Luke, running a hand over his chin. “I tried.”

“No one else did,” pointed out Jess, his voice cracking slightly. He was hunting through the recesses of his brain, but could not find words important enough for what Luke had done for him. Instead he looked up, swallowed hard, and finally met Luke’s gaze with his own, hoping fervently that Luke could not see the moisture that had gathered in the corners of his eyes.

“Thanks,” he said, a little tightly. “I appreciate it. I mean it.” 

“I know,” said Luke gruffly, with a half a smile. 

They went back to their work in silence. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. A little self-indulgent. But Luke's *there* for people. It's just what he does.   
> Moving forward, I'm looking to introduce more people! Working on some fun Jess-April interactions. I want Jess to have a run-in with Dean, but I'm not sure how I want that to go down yet. Let me know if you have suggestions.


	11. April Come She Will

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke gets April for part of the summer, and Jess starts to get to know his cousin.

“Hey, Jess, just so you know, you’re invited to dinner tomorrow night. April’s coming,” said Luke, walking into the diner and shoving open the kitchen door.   
“Oh, right, you mentioned,” said Jess, only half paying attention as he moved the stools down from the bar. “Doesn’t she live in New Mexico now?”

“Yeah, but I get her for part of the summer. She spent the first half at this brain camp in Baltimore.”

“ _ Brain _ camp?” Jess said, semi-mockingly. 

“Oh yeah. It’s at Johns Hopkins. They have a thing called Center for Talented Youth, where really smart kids go for three weeks and do what they call “academic exploration”,” said Luke, a distinct note of pride in his voice. 

“Huh. Sounds cool, I guess,” said Jess, a little doubtfully. Luke shrugged. 

“Eh, it didn’t sound like much fun to me, either, but she got really into it. She called me the other day to give me a dissertation on the origin of the word ‘hyperbole’. Totally incomprehensible, but she was really excited,” he said, with a shrug.

“Interesting,” said Jess. “Thought you said she liked science?”

“She likes everything. She said she doesn’t want to get pigeonholed.”

“Huh,” said Jess in mock sarcasm. “And you’re  _ sure _ she’s yours?” 

“Oh, shut up,” Luke shot back. “You’re only invited because I figured you’d be able to understand what she’s saying.”

“Oh, I’m a translator now?”

“Sure. We’ll call it that.”

“Whatever. She may actually be interesting. She seemed cool that time at Truncheon.”

“She’s plenty interesting. And she’s your cousin. It’ll be fun.”

“Hey, I never said no. What’re you making?”

“Is that going to be the deciding factor?”

“Maybe.”

Luke sighed. “Enchiladas.”

“I’m there,” answered Jess, unlocking the door and flipping the sign to OPEN.

* * *

“Hey,” said Jess awkwardly, as Lorelai answered the door. 

“Hi there,” she said brightly. “ _ Please _ come in, please, please,” she begged. “April’s a great kid but I  _ need _ a buffer. I have heard  _ way _ too much about the implications of the Latin dominance of academic words.”

“What, she’s not worried about the Greeks?” quipped Jess.

“It’s only right that Greek should dominate the language of science,” came another voice from the kitchen.

“See what I mean?” Lorelai nodded towards the kitchen. 

“You raised Rory,” Jess pointed out, striding over to the kitchen. “Smells good in here,” he added, sniffing. 

“April, you remember your cousin Jess,” said Luke from the corner, where he was doing something with a blender and a pile of tomatillos. 

“Oh yeah. Weird author. I liked the book, though,” said April, nodding. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” said Jess awkwardly. “Need a hand?” April was rolling tortillas messily around chicken and black beans and putting them into a casserole dish. 

“No thanks,” said April. 

“You can shred the cheese,” grunted Luke over the blender.

“Sure,” muttered Jess, opening the fridge to six takeout containers, three beers, and a single large block of Monterey Jack that looked distinctly out of place. Lorelai handed him a box grater and took a beer from over his shoulder. 

“So, I take it etymology camp was fun?” asked Jess, a little uncertainly.

“ _ So  _ fun. You understand language so much better when you know where it comes from. But we focused a lot on Latin and Greek. Most of the everyday words we use come from Saxon and Norse,” she answered, a little breathlessly. “Oh hey, and did you know about Hungarian? Totally off the map, language-wise.”

“Didn’t seem to bother Tommy Ramone,” shrugged Jess. 

“Who?” April asked curiously. 

“Tommy Ramone. Founding member of the Ramones. The band that pretty much invented punk.”

“I mean, we only spent one day on Eastern European languages, but Ramone doesn’t sound like a Hungarian name to me,” said April suspiciously. Jess chuckled. 

“Ramone isn’t their real name. They all called themselves that after Paul McCartney. He used Paul Ramon as a pseudonym.”

“That’s a Greek word, did you know? “Pseudo-” is a Greek root meaning “false”, and “-nym” from the Greek “onuma”, meaning name.” April beamed at him.

“Wow,” Jess answered, with a slight quirk of the mouth. Luke gave him a stern look, but it wasn’t as if Jess was about to start making fun of a  _ kid _ . Besides, it was at least vaguely interesting.

“Makes sense, right?” insisted April brightly.

“Yeah, it does,” said Jess. 

“It’s like in  _ My Big Fat Greek Wedding _ ,” cut in Lorelai from the corner. “You know, when Toula’s father keeps talking about how the roots of all words are Greek?” 

Jess raised an eyebrow in confusion. Luke looked blankly at Lorelai. April, however, grinned.

“Oh, yeah, all the girls in my etymology class watched that movie in the dorm one night,” nodded April.

“Finally, a kindred spirit,” said Lorelai with an exaggerated sigh of relief. “I’ll have you reading magazines in no time.”

“Pay no attention, April, she’s a bad influence,” said Luke, half-humorously. 

“Hey, it worked out great for Rory,” protested Lorelai. “Want me to call her up and tell her you think I ruined her?”

“Oh, forget about it,” said Luke, striding over with the blender. “You done there, April?”   
April stepped away from the now-full baking dish, and Luke poured a green sauce over the enchiladas.

“You know you can buy enchilada sauce, right?” said Jess dubiously. 

“Don’t bother,” muttered April. “I already told him, and  _ I  _ live in New Mexico, you’d think he’d trust me.” 

“Did he go on a rant about preservatives?” asked Jess out of the corner of his mouth as Luke sprinkled cheese on top. 

“I  _ told _ him citric acid is considered safe by the FDA,” shrugged April. “But whatever, as long as it tastes good. Camp food sucks.”

“I bet,” said Jess, watching Luke sliding the baking dish into the oven. “How long was it?”   
“Three weeks,” said April. “Long enough to get used to being away from home and all that. Did you ever go to camp?” 

Jess scoffed. “Oh, yeah, that would’ve gone well.”

“What did you do in the summers, then?”   
“When I lived here, I worked in the diner. Before that, I don’t know. Hung out. There’s a lot of stuff to do in New York.”

“Did your mom take you to the museums?” 

Jess chuckled darkly. “Nah, Liz didn’t really take the planning-educational-outings approach to parenting. But I went to the library a lot.”

“By yourself?” Jess saw Luke shoot April a warning look, but he didn’t really care much. 

“Yeah, I found my way around OK,” said Jess offhandedly. “I did go to the Met a couple times.” He figured now was not the best time to mention he had posed as part of school groups to avoid paying the entrance fee. 

“Cool. I’m dying to go to the Met. And the Museum of Natural History.”

“Luke, you should take her,” said Lorelai. “This is the closest to New York she’ll be for a while, take a day trip, go up to the city.”

“Uh, sure,” said Luke a little reluctantly, reaching into the fridge for a beer. 

“I can go,” interrupted Jess. He rather doubted Luke had been back to New York since he had burst into his apartment four years ago and demanded his attendance at Liz’ wedding. Luke looked at him in surprise.

“You’re busy at the diner. And I haven’t been in the city in a while,” shrugged Jess. In truth, he wasn’t sure why, exactly, he had volunteered to take his kid cousin to a museum two hours away, but he had missed New York. Even if he wasn’t used to the noise anymore.

“OK,” said Luke a little suspiciously. 

“I know New York better than you,” pointed out Jess. 

“That’s what I’m worried about,” grunted Luke. 

“Just means I know to keep her away from all the crack dens,” answered Jess, half-joking. 

“Luke, you hate the city,” pointed out Lorelai. “She’ll be  _ fine _ , and you won’t have to drive there and get all cranky-pants.”

“Please?” Jess jumped a little as April’s voice sounded next to him. She was looking earnestly at Luke. “I mean, Jess can show me around,” she added. “And you said I should get to know my cousin.” She continued looking directly at Luke, and Jess had to hand it to her; she clearly knew how to use the wide eyes and innocent tone to her advantage.

“Yeah, I guess that’s okay, if Jess has time,” sighed Luke. 

“No problem,” shrugged Jess. “I haven’t been to the city in a while.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” said Lorelai suddenly. “Sookie and I bought this antique lamp from a dealer in Manhattan, could you pick it up for us?” 

“Sure, I guess,” said Jess; Lorelai smiled at him and started making a note on a Post-It. Luke grinned at him furtively over Lorelai’s head, clearly pleased with the lack of rancor between them. Then the timer dinged. 

“Dinner’s on,” grunted Luke, nudging April away from the oven door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A slightly awkward family dynamic to begin with, but Jess and April would totally get along, so I wanted them to get some time to talk. It's a little stiff to start with, but it'll get easier later on.


	12. Always Crashing in the Same Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess & April make their way back from their excursion to New York.

“So, you like New York?” Jess glanced over at April. He initially wasn’t sure why he had offered to take her, but she was  _ fun _ . He had never really been into kids, but he supposed fourteen was old enough to actually be interesting. 

“Oh, I  _ love _ it,” said April happily. “I can’t believe you used to live there. There are  _ so _ many libraries. And you can walk to all of them.”

“Well, living there’s kind of a different story,” said Jess, grinning. “Gets expensive.”

“I bet my dad hates it,” said April with relish. Jess snorted. 

“Oh, yeah, he does. I don’t think he’s been here since he busted into my place four years ago. Normally he avoids the city like the plague.”

“Wait, you were still here then? I thought you were living in Philly,” April said curiously. 

Jess looked at her again, a little awkwardly. “Uh, I moved back to New York for a while before Philly.”

“How come? Did you go to college there?”

Jess chuckled darkly. “Ha. No. I was a messenger for about a year. I wasn’t  _ entirely _ kidding about knowing where all the crack dens were.” 

“Whoa,” sighed April, sitting back in her chair. “Why?”

“What d'you mean,  _ why?” _

“Why didn’t you go to college?”   
“Hard to get in when you don’t finish high school,” grunted Jess, a little uncomfortably. 

“You didn’t finish  _ high school _ ? But you’re really smart, like you understand what I’m talking about and everything. And you wrote a book. Like, a whole book.”

“Yep, Luke said something like that too,” said Jess, staring resolutely at the road.

“Was he mad? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him really mad,” asked April, sounding fascinated.

Jess sighed. “Yeah.” He wished April would stop probing, but didn’t quite know how to say so without sounding mean. 

“Wow, did he yell? Like, actually yell?”

“He yelled. I yelled. I left,” said Jess shortly. 

“You  _ left? _ ”   
“Well, when he heard I wasn’t graduating, he kicked me out. We didn’t talk for a while.” 

“You didn’t  _ talk _ ? God, I can’t imagine not talking to my mom. Or my dad, I guess, even though I only found out who he was two years ago.”

“Yeah, well,” said Jess morosely. “You get used to it.” In truth, he hadn’t gotten used to much of anything in California, or afterwards, but he supposed he had definitely had enough practice not speaking to people.

“Huh,” said April, sounding a little discomfited. “Guess you really aren’t chatty,” she said quietly. Jess felt a little guilty; he hadn’t meant to make her feel bad. He forced a chuckle, peering around the corners of the four-way stop.

“You should be used to that by -”

_ WHAM. _

* * *

Stunned, dazed, Jess looked around the car. There was a web of cracks running across the windscreen, emanating from the passenger side. He snapped his head around to look at April, who was looking away from him. 

“April?” Jess noticed the passenger side door was caved inwards, the window smashed, a mass of opaque cracks around a very large hole. 

_ “April?”  _

She looked up at him, gripping her right elbow in her left hand, her forearm at a slightly awkward angle. “Jess, I -” her voice was tight. “I think I broke my arm, it hurts, it really hurts,” she said, choking on a sob. All of a sudden, she looked very young. 

“It’ll be okay,” said Jess mechanically, trying not to think about the last time something like this had happened. “We’ll get you to the hospital, you’re going to be okay.” He leaned over awkwardly; her arm did look broken, but what did he know?

He glanced up through the hole in the window to see a hazy figure through another cracked windscreen. 

“ _ Kirk _ ?”

Jess jumped out of the car and ran around to the passenger side. The front of Kirk’s car had rammed into the passenger side, rendering the door almost completely concave. Jess peered through the window; Kirk looked utterly shellshocked, looking fixedly through his cracked windscreen at Jess’ car. Jess rapped angrily on his window.

“What the  _ fuck  _ are you doing, you moron?” 

Kirk turned his head slowly to look at Jess, his eyes a little out of focus. Jess smacked his palm impatiently on his window again, and Kirk jumped a little, then made to roll down the window.

“Kirk, what the ever-living hell do you think you’re doing? That’s my kid cousin in the car, you could have killed her. Who the fuck gave  _ you _ a goddamn  _ license _ ?”

Kirk screwed up his eyes a little, then reopened them, as if trying to focus. 

“I don’t know what happened,” he said slowly. 

“You T-boned my car, that’s what happened!” Jess yelled, feeling his temper rise. Kirk looked at him blankly, and Jess spun around, pointing at the stop sign. “It’s a four-way stop, idiot. You’re a fucking menace, you hear me?”

For a moment, it looked as though Kirk hadn’t, in fact, heard him at all. Then he nodded slowly. Jess turned to look at the sign again; it was partially hidden behind a branch. He looked back at Kirk, whose eyes were still a little unfocused. Then he glimpsed April again through the broken window. He took a deep, slow breath; he wasn’t going to get anything sensible out of Kirk, it looked like, and April needed help.

He pulled out his phone and dialed 911, running back around to the driver’s side of the car.

“April? You OK?” he asked, moving the speaker of the phone away from his mouth. April nodded, and sniffed, wiping her face with her good hand. 

“You’re bleeding,” she said, gesturing at his face, but the dispatcher had picked up and he ignored this for now.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“Car accident, another vehicle collided with my car at the corner of -“ he leaned over to peer at the street signs “ - Constabulary Lane and Fifth Street. We need an ambulance.” He glanced over at Kirk’s car. “Make that two, I’m not sure about the other driver.”

“Which Constabulary Lane?”

“I’m sorry,  _ what? _ ”

“Sir, there are two streets in Stars Hollow called Constabulary Lane, could you clarify which one?”

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking  _ kidding _ me,” said Jess in frustration. 

“There’s one in the north, near the town limits of Woodbridge, and one in the sou-”

“We’re at the north end of town,” interrupted Jess.

“You’re on Constabulary Lane North, then. Thank you, sir, we’re sending two ambulances and a police cruiser, since you had a collision. They should be about five minutes out.”

“Thanks,” said Jess, and hung up. He looked over at April again.

“There’s an ambulance coming in five minutes,” he said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone of voice. “Kirk didn’t see the stop sign and hit us. He looks a little off, so I asked for another ambulance.” 

April nodded. “You’re bleeding,” she repeated, a little shakily. Jess reached up to his forehead; it was wet.

“ _ Shit _ ,” he muttered, yanking down the sun visor and flicking open the mirror. There was a cut on his forehead; the cut itself didn’t look bad, but there was blood all down his face. He supposed some of the glass must have hit him, but it barely hurt, so he scrubbed his sleeve clumsily across his forehead and looked in the mirror again. It somehow looked worse now, but there was a siren approaching, so he abandoned the effort and got out of the car. A police cruiser was pulling up, and one of the cops got out. Jess groaned.

“Oh, it’s you,” grunted the cop. Jess blinked; it was the same one who had arrested him for stealing his own car four years ago. 

“Look, Kirk hit  _ me,” _ said Jess exhaustedly, trying to forestall any digressions. “And my kid cousin’s in the car, I think she’s hurt, can you just write your report so I can call a tow truck before the ambulance gets here?”

“Wait, Kirk hit  _ Luke’s _ kid?” asked the cop with raised eyebrows. 

“Yeah, I think he didn’t see the stop sign,” said Jess. “Go ask him, but I think he’s a little out of it. Maybe concussed.”

“Okay, you said he hit you?” the cop asked, making a note. 

“ _ Yes _ ,” said Jess firmly. “I know I looked around the corner before I went, but there’s a branch in front of the stop sign on that side, maybe he missed it. Do you need anything else? I’m going to need to call a tow.”

“It’s fine. Here’s the tow company. I need the story straight before I can show my face at Luke’s again.”

“Too true,” muttered Jess, running a hand through his hair. He blew out his cheeks and called the tow, watching the cop interrogate Kirk, who still looked dazed. Then he threw himself back into the driver’s seat. 

“It’s okay,” he said, wondering why he kept saying that when he had no idea whether or not it was true. “Kirk didn’t see the stop sign and he went through the intersection without looking, that’s all. I got a tow truck, it looks like he might have messed up the axle.”

April nodded, her lip quivering slightly. She still looked a little scared. Jess racked his brains, but for the life of him didn’t have any idea what to say. 

He was relieved of having to come up with something by the arrival of the ambulances. The EMTs were quick and efficient; they seemed completely unfazed by having to back Kirk’s car out of the side of Jess’ before they could get April out. She was still a little tearstained, but a motherly sort of EMT was fitting her in a sling as Jess hovered awkwardly, brushing off another EMT who was trying to look more closely at the tiny gash on his forehead. 

“Sweetie, I think you’re right about your arm,” the EMT was saying to April, “but we’ll need to take you to the hospital for X-rays. Do you want your, uh, brother to come with you in the ambulance?” She turned to look encouragingly at Jess. 

“He’s my cousin,” said April. “Would - would you?” she asked hesitantly, looking up at Jess.

“Yeah,” said Jess numbly. “Yeah, ‘course. Hold on.” He had spent entirely too much time having his car towed of late, he reflected somewhere in the recesses of his brain, as he gave the tow driver Gypsy’s address. Kirk was being helped out of his car by another EMT from the other ambulance, but Jess didn’t stop to watch. 

He climbed up into the ambulance to the seat that the EMT was flipping down from the wall for him, and got out his cell again as the ambulance started to move.

“What are you doing?” April was glaring at him.

“I’m calling Luke,” said Jess, confused.   
“No!”

“April, what -”

“I mean, not now! Not yet! He’s gonna freak, he practically exploded when I had my appendix out. Just, hold on, at least until we get to the hospital,  _ please _ ?”

“Huh, you had appendicitis too?” Jess was momentarily distracted.

“What?”

“Never mind,” said Jess, waving a hand; it wasn’t exactly the moment for reminiscences. “Look, April, they’re towing my car back to Gypsy’s, he’ll probably figure it out before we get there.”

“Ambulances can drive up to 25 miles an hour over the posted speed limit,” said April obstinately. 

“No one’s dying in here and this town is full of old people doing ten under, they’re not going that fast,” muttered Jess, looking for Luke in his speed dial. He hit the call button despite April waving frantically at him with her un-slinged arm. 

It went to voicemail after four rings, and he looked back up at April. 

“Didn’t pick up,” he said dryly. “Guess you’re in luck. For now.” He turned back to his phone and scrolled through his speed dial again.

“What’re you doing?” asked April, her eyes narrowed. 

“One way or another, we need a ride,” shrugged Jess, finding Lorelai’s number.

“Please. Just until we get there,” she begged. 

“Okay, sweetie,” called the EMT over her shoulder. “We’re here, and we’re going straight to Radiology for some X-rays, okay?”

Jess raised an eyebrow at April; she sighed, shrugged, and winced. 

“Fine.” 

Jess nodded, following April as they were led down a long hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jess seems to get into a lot of trouble with his car, no? Anyway, I'm looking to upset the fragile new balance of Jess' life, just as things seem to be looking up for him. And I like to think he'd really like April. Not only would they get along really well, but it would bring out some responsibility and protectiveness in him. A lot like Luke. Stay tuned as that develops.


	13. Scrubs

“Hello?”

“Hi, Lorelai?” said Jess uncertainly. It occurred to him that he had never actually called her before.

“Jess?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, I couldn’t get hold of Luke,” said Jess.

“Oh, yeah, he’s dealing with some kind of syrup incident,” said Lorelai. “What’s up? You better not be late for dinner or we won’t make the Pippi showing -“

“Lorelai,” interrupted Jess nervously, “We’re…going to be late.”

“What’s going on?” she asked suspiciously. Jess sighed. 

“Lorelai, I need you to stay calm,” he said, more nervously still.

“Jess, you better start talking. Now.”

“We’re at the hospital,” answered Jess in a rush, as if trying to get it over with. “Kir- uh, someone T-boned us on our way back into town. April hurt her arm. We’re at the hospital now.”

There was a frightening silence on the other end of the line.

“Lorelai, I’m sorry, I know you and I don’t have the best track record with this kind of thing,” he said uncomfortably, “but I can’t get hold of Luke and I can’t leave the hospital. Could you - just - get him? Call him, run over to the diner, something?” He waited a beat.

“Where are you?” Lorelai’s voice came hoarsely down the line.

Jess snapped his head around to look at the logo on the door. “Sacred Heart.”

“Are you okay?”

“Wh-what?” stammered Jess.

“Are. you. okay? Is April okay?” He heard hurried footsteps and what sounded like twigs snapping.

“Yeah. She’ll be okay. I’m fine,” said Jess, a little hesitantly.

“Good. So what the fuck did you do?” Lorelai’s tone abruptly turned angry. “What, missed your quota on breaking teenage girls’ arms?”

“No,” said Jess impatiently. “It wasn’t my fault. Someone missed a stop sign and smashed into my car. Look, can you just tell Luke? Please? Feel free to scream at me all you want later.” He supposed he had it coming, he thought wryly, seeing as he had deprived Lorelai of her chance to eviscerate him for hurting Rory years ago, but this was hardly the moment for a tongue-lashing.

“Fine,” snapped Lorelai. He heard the diner bell jingle. “Luke? Get out here!” he heard her yell away from the phone. A muffled question that he couldn’t hear, then she answered, “Your punk-ass nephew is what happened.” More silence.  _ So much for burying the hatchet,  _ he thought to himself. Then static and more muffled voices.

“Here. You talk.” He heard Lorelai’s voice one more time, presumably handing Luke the phone. 

“Jess? What the hell’s going on?”

“Luke,” said Jess in relief. “Look, yell at me later, kick me out of the diner, I don’t give a shit, but just stay calm for a second, will you?”

“Why?” Luke said suspiciously.

Jess blew out his cheeks. “Someone hit my car on the way back. April hurt her arm. We’re at the hospital. But they said she’ll be fine, she’s pretty chipper, they think she broke her arm but that’s all, I swear,” he said, trying to forestall Luke’s panic.

“She broke her  _ arm _ ?” Jess heard Luke shoving his way out of the diner. “How about you, are you okay?”

“Fine,” said Jess quickly. “Look, Luke, they said she needed a parent or guardian here, and we need a ride, I had to get my car towed. Could - could you -“

“Where are you?” Luke cut him off abruptly. Jess heard the slamming of the truck door.

“Sacred Heart,” said Jess.

“I’m coming. Stay put.”

“Luke, I’m sor-“ there was a click on the other end of the line. Jess slowly lowered the phone from his ear, and turned around. April was being walked back out from the Radiology department by a doctor in green scrubs, her arm still in a sling, asking animated questions.

“Sweetie, I don’t  _ know _ the exact differential voltage on the cyclotron,” he heard the doctor say wearily. “Let’s just look at the X-rays, okay? Is that your brother?” He nodded over at Jess.

“Cousin,” muttered Jess, walking over. The doctor was holding a sheaf of black films in one hand; he followed them into a small room where the doctor started shoving the films into clips over lights.

“Did you call my dad?” April looked up at him.

“Yeah. He’s coming,” said Jess, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Did he freak out?”

“Eh, I think he’s saving the freak-out for when he gets here,” shrugged Jess. “He’s on his way now.”

“Good,” said a nurse standing in the corner that Jess hadn’t noticed; he jumped. The nurse held out a clipboard to Jess. “We’re going to need insurance information,” he rapped out. “If you could get started filling that out, it would be a big help.”

Jess reluctantly took the clipboard and stared down at the form.

_ Name: _

_ Date of birth: _

_ In case of minor patient, name of accompanying parent or guardian: _

_ Insurance plan: _

_ Plan number: _

_ Previous hospitalization(s): _

He scribbled “April Nardini” at the top of the form, then looked blankly at the rest of the spaces.

“Uh, April -“ he began, but stopped. The doctor had apparently grasped enough about April to start explaining in detail where the break was and how he was going to realign it. April was listening attentively as the doctor pointed out a faint line near what looked like April’s elbow. Jess tapped the clipboard absently into his other hand as he half-listened to the doctor describing the process of putting on the cast. At least this time, he could say with some degree of confidence that it wasn’t his fault, he thought, not that that made any difference. He had still managed to let April get hurt on his watch, at precisely the time that Lorelai had extended her mama-bear instincts to her. And this time it was Luke’s actual kid that he had hurt; he had no guarantees that Luke would be as forgiving.

“…so, Nurse Schinsky here is going to stabilize the bone in your arm while I wrap it up. The cast’ll take about fifteen minutes to harden up, but it won’t be fully dry until tomorrow, so no showering, okay?”

April nodded; Jess spotted some movement over her head through the glass door.

“I’ll be right back,” he said to April. She nodded, giving him a small smile. She certainly looked decidedly happier than she had earlier; Jess wasn’t sure if it was the pain medication or her apparent fascination with X-ray machines, but he felt slightly heartened. He shoved open the door and stepped out into the hallway.

“Luke,” he called across the hall; Luke appeared to be hassling someone at the nurse’s station, but turned around abruptly at Jess’ voice. His expression black, he strode towards him. 

“What the  _ hell _ happened?” Luke asked angrily. Jess instinctively raised his hands, trying to calm Luke down.

“Ki-uh, someone T-boned my car. They hit the passenger side. April had her arm on the door and it got broken, but she’s gonna be fine, she’s in there getting a cast, there’s nothing else wrong,” he said hastily, watching Luke’s face darken. 

“And you?” said Luke, still breathing heavily.

“Fine,” shrugged Jess.

“You’re covered in blood.”

“I said I’m fine.”   
“Good,” said Luke abruptly. “And how, exactly, does it just  _ happen _ that you got T-boned? You run a light? A stop sign? What the hell, Jess?”

His tone shifted to anger almost as quickly as Lorelai’s had. Jess gulped. 

“I didn’t do anything,” said Jess, fighting to stay calm. “I stopped at a four-way stop. The other driver had a branch in front of the stop sign and didn’t see it.  _ He _ hit the car. I swear, it wasn’t my fault this t-”

“ _ This _ time? You realize this looks an awful lot like a pattern, doesn’t it?” Luke was still glaring at him, and though the rational part of Jess’ brain knew Luke was more scared than anything else, he felt anger flare in his chest anyway.

“Listen,” he growled, “you know damn well I wouldn’t make excuses if it was my fault. I told you the truth last time and I’m telling you the truth now. Your kid is in there having her arm plastered up and I can’t fill out this form. You gonna help?”

He thrust out the clipboard still clutched in his hand, and Luke’s shoulders slumped. 

“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. 

“You’re what now?” Jess answered, perhaps more snarkily than he had meant. “Say that again?” He cocked an ear exaggeratedly at Luke. 

“I said, I’m sorry. I was worried and I took it out on you, and I shouldn’t’ve,” said Luke, still quietly. 

“S’okay,” said Jess, taken aback at how easily Luke had backtracked. 

“It’s not. It’s not your fault. And are you sure this is okay?” Luke reached up to Jess’ forehead and thumbed the cut as he peered in closer.

“Looks worse than it is. Face cuts bleed a lot.” He ducked away from Luke’s hand. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about. I think April might drive the doctor insane with all her questions.”

The corner of Luke’s mouth twitched. “That’s a good sign.”

“Like I said, she’s pretty chipper,” said Jess, motioning back towards the door. “Don’t get too worked up, she doesn’t need you to go into agitated mother-hen mode.”

Luke spluttered indignantly. “I do  _ not _ go into mother-hen -” 

“Appendix,” Jess interrupted Luke with a raised eyebrow; Luke sighed in defeat. 

“ _ Fine _ , I’ll be calm. Let’s go.”

Jess pushed open the door to the room. 

“Hi, Dad,” said April, waving with her free hand; the doctor and nurse were busily working on the other. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. It wasn’t Jess’ fault, he called the ambulance and everything -” 

Luke took a breath, then with apparent effort, smiled at April. 

“It’s okay, Jess explained, I’m just glad this is the worst of it,” he said, looking up at the doctor. “Everything else all right?”

“Just fine, we checked her out and this is the only thing wrong,” the doctor responded, and Jess had to hand it to him; he supposed the doctor had had a lot of anxious parents to practice on before he got to Luke. 

“And him? Does he need stitches or anything?” Luke jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Jess. Jess felt a dull flush creeping up under his collar.

“Luke,” Jess muttered uncomfortably out of the corner of his mouth. “I don’t have insurance.” The cut was tiny; it wasn’t as if he  _ needed  _ anything, really. 

“Sir, this is pediatrics,” the nurse answered. “If your son wants-”

“Nephew,” corrected Luke & Jess at the same time. 

“Well, if your nephew wants treatment, I’ll show him down the hall to the adult emergency room.”

“I don’t have insurance,” said Jess, a little more loudly this time. Nurse Schinsky and the doctor exchanged glances; April looked between them, then solicitously back at Jess. The doctor nodded, very slightly.

“Come here,” Nurse Schinsky beckoned Jess; the doctor turned back to April and, in an abrupt change of subject, asked her what color she wanted for her cast. Jess went to the corner of the room, where the nurse produced a tiny flashlight out of nowhere. 

“Don’t blink,” he rapped sternly at Jess, then shone the light into both his eyes, peering carefully into them. “No sign of concussion,” he muttered, half to himself. “Any pain? Bruising? Swelling? No impact to the head? Stiff neck?”

“N-no,” said Jess, nonplussed. The nurse nodded, snapping on gloves and retrieving a pack of antiseptic wipes. He wiped the blood from Jess’ face and swabbed the cut very quickly with iodine, glancing over at the window to the hallway. “You won’t need stitches,” he muttered, “but wear sunscreen, or it’s going to scar.”

Jess nodded; Nurse Schinsky applied three small strips of tape to his forehead to hold the cut closed. 

“You’re done,” he said in a low voice. “Don’t ignore it if you have any head or neck pain in the next week or so.”

“Thanks,” said Jess, reaching tentatively up to the cut. 

“For what?” asked Nurse Schinsky, raising an eyebrow as he threw his gloves in the trash and turned back to April as if nothing had happened. Jess understood, and followed suit. April was getting purple plaster wrapped around her cast, and Luke looked up, a hand on her shoulder. 

“Thanks, Nurse -” he looked for the nametag. “Schinsky.” 

“Don’t mention it,” the nurse answered pointedly. “And, Mr. Nardini -”

“Danes,” interrupted Luke. 

“- Mr. Danes, then, we’re still going to need you to fill this out.” Nurse Schinsky removed the clipboard from Jess’ hand and held it out. Luke accepted it with a sigh, produced a pen from his shirt pocket, and began to write. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. I have some plans for how this is going to go down for Jess with Lorelai and with the rest of the town. It'll be interesting for sure. Jess doesn't exactly have the best track record here and a lot of the townies scapegoated him last time around. I feel like Lorelai has some complicated feelings about Jess still, mostly regarding the accident from years ago, and it'll take some time to work through. But at least Luke manages to calm down and not overreact (too much) this time. He's a good dad to April. Also, even minor forehead cuts bleed a lot.


	14. Mama Said Knock You Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jess hauls Kirk up on the accident. Lorelai and Jess have it out.

“Luke took her to the doctor again today.”

“Where exactly was she hurt?”

“She broke her arm, poor lamb.”

“She  _ did _ ? Oh, poor thing.”

“Do you know what happened?”   
“I heard  _ Jess _ was driving,” came a hushed whisper. 

“Why Luke’s still letting him stay, I don’t know,” added another voice. “When it was Rory he put him on the next bus to New York, pronto.”

Jess sighed, and turned away from the coffee maker. Babette, Miss Patty and Taylor quickly sat up, having very obviously just finished muttering about him. He glanced over to their table. All of them were looking very studiously at the menu that had gone unchanged for at least six years, keenly avoiding his gaze. 

He swept around the room with the coffee pot, refilling cups, then pointedly turned up at the table in the window with a notebook and pen. 

“Can I help you with anything here, folks?” He asked, popping his bottom lip on the  _ f _ . 

“Oh, uh, no, honey,” said Babette, a little awkwardly. “You know, I really oughta be going, Maury has the cats today and he doesn’t know all their medications, and doses, and -” she grabbed her purse and hurriedly left the diner. 

“I’m not hungry,” Taylor groused. “Come on, Patty, we shouldn’t hold up the table and waste anyone’s time, now.” 

They left in almost as much of a hurry as Babette had. Jess rolled his eyes and went back behind the counter, wiping down surfaces, waiting for Caesar to finish the last three tickets. No way would Taylor, let alone anyone else, have the brass nerve to sit gossiping about April if _ Luke _ had been cooking that day. 

He mechanically served, refilled, and cleared the last three tables, the motions automatic now, his mind elsewhere. He could only just barely afford the repairs to his car; Gypsy had happily told him his suspension was wrecked, but that this time she would only  _ slightly _ overcharge him. As far as he knew, no one knew Kirk had been involved. Seeing as Taylor regularly met with the chief of police as Town Selectman - whatever the hell that was - he supposed they had just let him go at the scene.

He yelled at Caesar that he was on his break now, and poured a cup of decaf and threw himself into the newly vacated booth in the empty diner. It wouldn’t make much difference, he thought morosely, half the town was just looking for an excuse to tar and feather him anyway. 

The bell dinged near his head, and he jumped. Kirk was pushing open the door. 

“We’re closed,” said Jess abruptly. “Caesar’s on his break. We open for lunch in -” he glanced at the clock “- twenty minutes.”

“Please,” said Kirk. “I just want a sandwich, I just need to get out of the house. Mother’s out of town and -” he looked around for a second, then leaned closer to Jess “- Lulu’s cooking is  _ terrible _ ,” he finished in a stage whisper. 

“Can’t you make a sandwich at home?” asked Jess irritably. 

“But they’re better  _ here _ ,” insisted Kirk. 

“What are you  _ talking  _ about? You’ve ordered a PB&J on wheat the last six times I’ve seen you in here.”

Kirk looked plaintively at Jess for a second, and Jess sighed in defeat. 

“ _ One _ time, and I wanna talk to you when you’re done,” he said, pointing a finger at Kirk as he pushed his way into the kitchen, grabbed a loaf of bread and smeared peanut butter and jelly onto two slices. 

“Learn to cook for yourself,” he said, shoving the plate at Kirk.

“It doesn’t look as good as when Luke makes it,” said Kirk, looking at his plate. 

“Oh, for the love of -” Jess pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, willing himself not to yell at a paying customer. Kirk sat nervously down at the same table where Jess’ rapidly cooling coffee stood, and took a bite. Jess sat down heavily opposite Kirk.

“Okay, I think you know what I want to talk about,” he said, glaring at Kirk. “You T-boned my car, you hurt April, and now she’s in a cast and I need a whole new suspension.” 

“That’s unfortunate,” said Kirk, chewing placidly. “Can I get a glass of milk?”

Jess strode back into the kitchen, nodded through the window at Caesar smoking outside, seized a jug of milk out of the walk-in, and slammed it and a glass in front of Kirk. 

“There,” he said. “Now, I get it was an accident, but legally you’re at fault. I can go through my insurance, but it’ll be easier if you and I just work something out about paying for the damage between ourselves. Do we understand each other?”

“The cops let me go.”

“I don’t know if the insurance company will see it that way. Police report or not, the right side of my car now fits just  _ perfectly _ around your front bumper.”

“Your point?”

“Point is, if I  _ have _ to, I’ll get your insurance to pay out, but then your premiums go up. And we haven’t even  _ talked  _ about injury liability.”

“I can’t have my premiums go up. Lulu and I are combining finances, and my bills go to Mother - they’ll know what I did.”

“Kirk, sooner or later everyone’s going to know.”

“It’s all right for  _ you! _ Luke’s not going to kick you out of the diner, you’re his server!” Kirk swallowed. “And his nephew,” he added as an afterthought.

“You’re sneaking around so  _ Luke _ doesn’t ban you from the  _ diner _ ?”

“Like I said, Lulu can’t cook, but she wants us to move out of Mother’s house when we get married, so my only reliable food source will be Luke. This is a matter of life and death, Jess.” Kirk punctuated the last three words with a jab of his finger into the table, and Jess rolled his eyes.

“Learn. To. Fucking. Cook. You. Moron.”

“You have to teach me."

“Uh, no, I don’t. Go to the library, borrow a goddamn cookbook. It’s not that hard.”

“If I do, Lulu will think I don’t love her. And if I go to Gypsy’s, everyone in town knows I hit you.”

“Well, right now you’re  _ lying _ to Lulu about her cooking, and everyone in town wants to hit  _ me _ with their cars. You’ve done worse, Kirk, they’ll forgive you eventually.”

“Even Luke?"

“Luke’s pretty forgiving.”

Kirk sighed. “I guess none of the previous bans have been permanent.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Jess in a mock-cheerful voice. “Look, we’ve got a few minutes here. Let’s go over to Gypsy’s, she said she’d have a quote for me, you cut her a check and we’re good. Oh, and you should apologize to April, but you do that on your own time.”

“Just so you know, I can’t afford any more than -”

“Cut the crap, Kirk, Luke told me about the Twickham house, I know what you can afford.”

“Can I take my sandwich?”

“Sure, do whatever you want.” Jess looked critically at the sandwich for a second, and made a decision. “PB&J’s on me.”

“Really?” Kirk looked surprised. Jess nodded. 

“Don’t tell Luke. Let’s go.”

* * *

Jess looked down at the bracelet Gypsy had pulled out of his car. It had fallen off, apparently, gotten lost in the scuffle. Luke had offhandedly mentioned only that morning that the only thing bothering April was that she had lost her bracelet; he had framed it as a good thing, that she wasn’t in any pain. But still Jess found himself hovering awkwardly in front of the house, needing to give it back to April before that detail, too, became common knowledge, but not really wanting to knock on the door.

He briefly considered throwing rocks at the window, then shook himself. He wasn’t in high school anymore, he wasn’t trying to sneak around with Rory, he was a grown-ass man returning his cousin’s lost bracelet. He strode up to the door, and knocked before he could dither any longer.

The door flew open abruptly and Jess’ eyes met Lorelai’s. He noticed, in the split second before they narrowed at him, that they were precisely the same shade of blue as Rory’s. This did not help. 

“Oh. It’s you.”

“I brought April’s bracelet,” said Jess awkwardly, holding it up. “Gypsy found it in the car.”

Lorelai hmph’ed. “Nice to see you haven’t made  _ that _ a habit too,” she said acidly. She turned to yell April’s name down the hall.

“Right here, Lorelai,” came a voice from Lorelai’s other side. April appeared at her elbow, grinning broadly at Jess.

“Thanks,” she said brightly, reaching out a hand for the bracelet. “I’ll have to wear it on my left hand for now, I guess,” she said, glancing down at her arm in a sling. “You want to see my X-ray pictures? They let me take them home from the hospital after the follow-up check.”

“Uh, sure,” Jess answered hesitantly; Lorelai’s face darkened, and she did not move away from the door.

“Oh, hey, Jess,” came Luke’s voice from somewhere behind Lorelai; he heard heavy footfalls going towards the kitchen. “Lane has the dinner shift tonight, right? You wanna stay for dinner?”

Lorelai snapped her head around at Luke’s question. There was a loud sigh.

“Lorelai, I’m not going to fight with you about this.”

April’s brow furrowed; Jess tried to smile at her, but his face felt stiff.

“That’s okay, Luke, I’ll go -”

“Why? He should stay for dinner,” said April stubbornly, now looking at Lorelai, who wasn’t meeting her eye, still glaring at Luke off inside the house.

“Okay, I’ve had enough of this. Lorelai, your problem isn’t with me, so don’t look at me to solve it,” said Luke, striding into the doorframe. “Can you two work it out so I can get back to the soup?”

“Fine,” said Lorelai. “Jess - outside.”

Jess turned away and made to leave, then felt a hand grab his shoulder. He spun around; Lorelai had stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind her. Apparently, “outside” had not been a dismissal. 

“Yes?” He hadn’t meant to sound so antagonistic. 

“You have some nerve, showing up back here like nothing happened, you know.” She had folded her arms across her chest and was glaring at him.

“I’m here to give April back her bracelet. It fell off in my car. That’s all. If that’s it, I’ll be going,” he said, turning back towards the yard.

“No, it damn well is not  _ it _ . You have a history of irresponsible driving, and I know Luke approved it, but you know as well as I do you should never have had April in your -”

“Look,” Jess interrupted, losing patience, “I get that you and I don’t have a good history here, but I wasn’t at fault in this accident. I wasn’t even legally at fault in the last one, but believe me, I blamed myself for it anyway, I do  _ not _ need any more guilt on that front. I don’t fuck around, if it was my fault, I’d own up to it. You can trust me, it genuinely wasn’t this time.”

“Oh, like you owned up to it  _ last _ time?” She laughed humorlessly.   
“Yeah, to  _ Luke _ ,” he said angrily, “And I left before you could crucify me. Now I’m sorry I deprived you of the opportunity, but you’ll just have to wait until the next time I screw up, because this time around it  _ wasn’t my fault _ .” 

“You get into two separate car accidents where two separate teenage girls break their arms and you wanna tell me it  _ wasn’t your fault? _ ”

“You think Luke would let me back in the house if he believed it was my fault?” Jess heard his own voice growing louder. “You think he’d let me take his  _ kid _ in my car if he thought I was a danger to her?” 

“I think he gives you the benefit of the doubt too often, if you ask me -”

“And it’s on you to decide that? Has it escaped your notice that  _ April _ doesn’t seem to have a problem? She was there, she doesn’t think it’s my fault.”

“She’s young.”

“She’s smarter than any of us.”

“So’s Rory, and she was still too nice to blame you.”

“The cops didn’t blame me either! I still feel bad about that, but I’m pretty sure the statute of limitations is up on that one -”

“You’re very informed on the legal ramifications for someone who supposedly wasn’t at fault,” snapped Lorelai acidly.   
“Do you just not trust Rory, or April, or Luke, when they tell you something?” sighed Jess. “Can they just not be right, if they’re disagreeing with you?”

“I do trust Luke!”

“Really? Because he and I had this same conversation, I told him what happened, April told him what happened, and he  _ believed _ us.” Jess squared up to Lorelai. “I would never -  _ ever _ \- be careless with a kid in the car. Especially not  _ Luke _ ’s kid.” He met her gaze, unflinching as her eyes bored into his.

“You done?” Lorelai asked.

“Yeah,” he muttered, turning to leave.

“Stop. Luke made minestrone.”

Jess spun on his heel.

“What now?”

“Oh, I’m still pissed that you got  _ another  _ girl hurt on your watch. But Luke invited you in. It’s his house too. Come eat.”

“Thanks, I guess,” he mumbled, still stunned. Lorelai didn’t move. He pushed the door open, and walked in. Another dinner in silence, he supposed. At least he had some practice with that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's not a resolution. Not quite. Not yet. Lorelai won't admit fault quite so easily as Luke will, even if she knows Jess is right (I get the impression she doesn't really trust other people if their explanations of something conflict with her long-held opinions of people.) Things will come to a head in the next chapter. (Spoiler: there are more town meetings coming up. I love a good town meeting.)


End file.
